Roll X
by Ridelle
Summary: What if Megaman X had a sister...? Updated with Phase Three.
1. Prologue: Resurrection

**Roll X by Ridelle**

**Prologue**: Resurrection

**E**ven in her somewhat comatose state her senses were still active, feeding her information gathered about the place she lay in. From the information gathered, she knew that there were two others in the room with her and they were standing directly over her. She smelled the scent of a young female mixed with the smell of many other things. Sweat, steel, leather, jeans, oil, copper and rubber were all mixed in with the scent of the girl, making her nose tingle slightly. The girl probably worked around plenty of machinery. The other bore the scent of a boy in his mid-teens—freshly showered—with a light scent of deodorant floating off his body mixed in with the sweet aroma of bubblegum. In her still state she could hear the sound of tools hitting the surface of a steel table and the sound of hands being pulled from the insides of a pair of rubber gloves.

Voices followed afterwards. The girl was the first to speak.

"…Well, that's about all I can really do at the moment," she said with a low exhale afterwards. "Never seen anything like this before."

After a round of chewing on the stick of gum in his mouth, the boy spoke as well.

"Where'd you find her?" he asked the girl.

"Some kids found her in the cave up north. I had some guys from the village help me bring her back here."

"You think she's still operational? Don't look like it," he asked, chewing once again.

"The system says that she is operational right now, just not fully. Possibly some kind of standby mode," the girl replied. "She's asleep, basically. And from the looks of it, she's been that way for quite some time."

"Great… So how are we supposed to wake her up? Find Prince Charming or something to kiss her and wake her up?"

"No," the girl retorted, laughing. "I'll just flood her central systems with a bit of juice and see what happens." There was a light click then a few beeps followed by a hollow clang. "Well, here goes."

The sleeping girl felt a warmth grow within her body as her still body suddenly jerked, causing every single muscle in her body to tighten up simultaneously. She could feel the energy coursing through every iota of her internal systems, powering them up one after the other. Her brain, which was dormant up to that point, began to function once again, collecting the thousands of information signals coming from various parts of her body. The energy insertion lasted for thirty complete seconds then slowly came to a stop as the girl shut off the machine the same way she started it up. There was plenty of hot steam rising from the sleeping girl's body following the machine's deactivation; the pair stood clear of it to avoid incurring any burns.

"Think that did it?" the boy asked.

"Let's see," the girl replied, "according to the computer, her systems are now running at their full capacity. She should be awake now."

The fingers of the sleeping girl moved as the steam dissipated from the room, forming a tight fist then easing back out. The two in the room moved closer as the girl's entire arm moved, pushing her upper body upwards until she sat upright with her hands at the sides to maintain her balance. They stopped directly in front of her, looking at her slightly pale face. Her lips and eyes were still and closed, but she was breathing, showing that she was at least 'alive' somewhat. The girl leaned forwards towards her, her face stopping just inches away from hers.

"Can you hear me?" the teenage girl asked, moving a few strands of her hair out of the way. "If you can, please try open your eyes."

After a few seconds, the freshly woken girl's eyes began to move behind closed lids. She closed her eyes tightly together before slowly opening them, allowing the light to flood inside. Her vision was limited to colored waves at the beginning. The waves slowly began to morph and take form, allowing her a perfect view of the young girl leaning over in front of her face. She blinked suddenly and the young girl was startled, jumping back into a standing position. They two took a few steps back as the girl looked at the floor in front of her, letting her body slide down of the table until she found herself standing. They got a chance to look her over completely. She stood at a height of around five feet and four inches and her pale-skinned body was wrapped in a torn and burned white frock. Her emerald eyes surveyed the surroundings as they surveyed her. Long, golden-blonde hair fell from her head until it stopped at her mid-thighs, front and back. They were cables stuck into four holes on her back and on her arms, linking her to the large computer system in a corner of the room. She didn't seem to mind them at all, looking around the room entirely before stopping and looking at the two in front of her.

The girl looked about sixteen, five feet seven and her lightly-tanned arms and face were covered in thick machine oil. The same oil stained her jeans and her white blouse. Her green eyes stared back relentlessly as her oil-stained, faded-blonde hair blew to the right. The boy stood next to her at a height of five feet and four inches. His jaws were in constant movement as he chewed on the gum in his mouth with one of his eyebrows high in the air. A pair of green eyes looked out from behind the lenses of his glasses. He had a head of spiky hair that matched the girl's next to his perfectly. He had on a white lab coat over a pair of blue jeans and a white vest. He looked intelligent on the outside, like a scientist of sorts. The girl next to him stepped forward with her hand on her chest and a friendly smile on her face.

"Um… Uh… hello there. I see you have finally woken up," she said. "Can you speak?"

The girl stood silent for a second then replied in a soft voice that was a bit emotionless.

"Yes. I can speak."

The boy quit his chewing.

"Ah, progress. Excellent." He stepped forward, looking her up and down. "You are certainly a fine creation. My name is Wayd and this girl here is my older sister, Wrench. How do you feel?"

She rested her right hand on the side of her head, closing her eyes.

"There is something wrong with my memory database. I can't seem to access certain dated information. My systems are telling me that the data isn't lost, but broken, and scattered across various parts of my brain," she replied, shaking her head. "I can't seem to reassemble the broken data myself."

"That's quite a problem, but I think I know someone that can help you with a bug of that nature. Can you at least remember the name your creator gave to you?" Wrench asked.

She closed her eyes as if she was thinking and then opened them again, looking down at him.

"Yes, I can," she replied. "My name… is Roll."


	2. Phase One: Memories Revisited

Phase One: **Memories Revisited**

**S**unlight filtered in through the circular window as Roll sat under it with her arms together and outstretched over her bent legs with her wrists on her knees. She was alone for the time being and so she surveyed her surroundings. She sat against the blue wall of a circular room with a large, blue, round carpet in the center. There was a chair next to her—a hovering type—floating next to a table. There was a laptop computer on the table. It was turned on and the animated screensaver of a pair of three-dimensional orbs glowing orbs was active. The computer was Wayd's, and he would often be found walking around with it, surfing the internet for various types of information, most of it being about advanced robotics. Ever since he was a small child, Wayd was fascinated by robots of all shapes and sizes. His sister, Wrench, on the other hand, always had a love for the most hands-on side of robotics and dreamed that she would someday become a world-renowned robotics mechanic. Even though she had only been an apprentice for quite some time, Wrench had never given up on the dream she had from the time she could hold her first tool and get her hands dirty.

A voice floated in from outside the room.

"Roll? Hey, Roll, where'd you go off to?"

It was Wrench, calling from another part of the house.

"I'm in the living room," Roll replied, changing her position and sitting on her legs.

Wrench came into the room through a door at Roll's left. She was cleaner than usual and had on a pair of light blue slippers adorned with seashell designs. A blue, button-down shirt covered her upper body area and a pair of white shorts covered the lower, letting her show off her long, slender legs. Her hair was done into a pair of pigtails with a pair of green ribbons tying them off at the bases. She glanced at the watch around her left wrist then looked down at Roll on the floor next to her.

"There you are. What are you doing here?" Wrench inquired.

"Thinking…" Roll replied, sighing heavily. "I'm trying to reorganize my broken memory data by myself, but to no avail. Without my memories intact I don't know who made me or why I was created. And if I don't know that, I'm basically a robot without a purpose, fit for deactivation. Can't you or your brother do anything to help me?"

Wrench smiled.

"Well, I'm more of a Reploid body mechanic and Wayd doesn't know how to fix the problem with your brain, but I know of someone who probably can," Wrench replied, extending her hand to the robot girl in front of her. "Come with me, Roll."

Roll cocked a brow, took her hand and was led out of the room.

"H-Hey! Where are you taking me?" Roll asked, trying to keep up with Wrench's increasing pace.

"You said that your brain was buggy, right?" Wrench asked. "Well, I know just the person to fix you up."

**R**oll's curious eyes scanned every inch of the outside world as she was led by hand up a long path through a street. The people in the immediate area threw Wrench their usual wave and then stared at the unfamiliar girl standing next to her. Their stares came from all directions and came from women and children alike. Roll noticed something common about them—they were all human. There wasn't a single Reploid in sight amongst them. Roll's ears picked up the sound of waves crashing against a distant shore and she stopped as they walked up through the city streets, noticing that the sound came from all directions. They were on some kind of island and judging by the distance of the sounds, the island was not very large.

"Is something wrong, Roll?" Wrench asked, walking up next to her.

"I don't know…" Roll replied. "This place where we stand… Where exactly are we?"

Wrench looked around then back at Roll.

"Oh, this place? We're in Doppler Town," Wrench replied. "Or what's left of it, anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

Wrench rested her hands in her shorts' side pockets, blowing some strands of her hair to the right.

"Well, ten years ago, there was a war between humans, Mavericks and Reploids alike. Thanks to that, the Earth is more or less half of what it used to be," Wrench explained. "This island we live on used to be a part of the mainland. It got blown off in that war and we have been floating way out here in the middle of nowhere squared since then."

"Machines… were harming mankind? But the first of robotics says that—" Roll began to say before Wrench sighed and cut in.

"I know what it says, Roll, but I doubt that Mavericks really care," Wrench said, starting to walk again. "The Doctor would give you far more detailed information than I can give you. Ask her all you want when you meet."

Roll continued to follow Wrench, ignoring the constant stares of the general public.

"Are you sure that this doctor can repair my memory?" Roll asked, a tad concerned. "I don't want any quacks mucking about in my head, you know."

"You don't have to worry about a single thing, Roll. Doctor Gate can fix anything."

**R**oll's right eyebrow slowly rose above her left as she stopped and looked up at the building in front of her. It looked run down and thick vines were growing through large cracks in the walls. The upper floors of the building were overrun by vegetation, making it a prim haven for various types of animals and insects. She could hear the calls of birds and insects emanating from the roof of the building as Wrench her to the front door by hand. A snake crawled across the path where they walked, ignoring them completely as it chased after a pair of lizards in a bush up ahead.

"And we're here," Wrench said to her, stopping in front of the pair of main doors and pointing to them with her left thumb. "I know the place looks a big bad, but you should just ignore that."

To say the place looked "a bit bad" was an understatement. Roll imagined it would collapse and crumble into a large of dust if the wind would barely do as much as blow too hard. Her lips curled up as Wrench pressed a button on the left side of the door. A short melody followed and soon there were footsteps coming from above. Roll caught onto them first and looked up as a small robot hopped from the roof of the building, floating down to their position my means of a small propeller on its head. It was circular in shape with a pair of large yellow feet that were sticking out the sides of what appeared to be its black, circular body. It also seemed to be wearing a large, yellow construction helm with a small, green cross in the center of it above its pair of large, circular eyes. It stopped its descent and hovered in front of the two, floating from person to person. It seemed particularly interested in Roll, eyeing her closely as it flew circles around her body.

"Okay—what is this funny-looking thing and what's it doing?" Roll asked, pointing at the robot.

"Oh that? He's a Metool or "Met" for short," Wrench replied. "Don't worry about him, he's just never seen another robot on the island other than his brothers and his creator, Doctor Gate." Wrench reached across and looked at the hovering Met. "Hey, could you open the doors? I need to see the Doc."

The Met tossed her a few beeps then floated over to the door, hovering in front of it.

"Oh? What's the problem?" Wrenched asked it.

He beeped another couple of times.

"What? Again?" Wrench rested her hands on her hips and cocked a brow. "I thought I told you not to do that anymore."

The Met turned around as the doors began to part, beeping once again, more high-pitched this time.

"Okay, okay. Calm down. Meet me back at my workshop in about an hour and a half, okay?"

The Met hovered up and down a couple of times then flew back to the roof, scaring a few birds in the process.

"You're welcome." Wrench turned around to find Roll standing there with a confused look on her pale face. "What? He asked me to take a look at his right foot for him. Can't be a world-renowned mechanic if I ignore those in need, now can I?"

"And you understood what it wanted? All it did was beep a couple of times!" Roll asked.

Wrench laughed.

"I've been living around the Mets for so long that I can understand everything they say," Wrench replied, reaching out to Roll and taking her hand again.

"You human beings are weird," Roll commented.

"C'mon. We can't be wasting time around here."

Roll was led down a long flight of stairs, constantly wondering if this was the right thing to do. They reached the bottom minutes later and Wrench stopped in front of a pair of doors where a larger Met slept outside. Wrench knelt down and knocked on its helmet with her left fist—twice. It jumped up and looked around for a few seconds then up at Wrench. After a beep or two it turned around and the doors opened, letting the two walk inside. The room was full of smaller Mets, each of them minding a different piece of machinery. They would sneak a peek at their visitors through the corner of their eyes, but they wouldn't move from their positions; minding their jobs was far more important than greetings. Roll observed as they would sometimes switch places with other Mets, taking over one another's jobs. A female voice came from the very back of the room after the sound of a small explosion.

"Hmm… O-Kay then…" There was a cough between the speech. "That was _not_ the outcome I was hoping to get."

Wrench continued to lead Roll by hand through the maze of machinery, heading in the direction of the explosion.

"Doctor Gate, you alright?" Wrench asked. Stopping in front of piece of smoking machinery on a table.

"Peachy, my friend. Just peachy." There was another cough. "Be up in a second."

A white-gloved hand reached up and grabbed onto the table, gripping it tightly before Doctor Gate pulled herself off the ground. She was dressed in a fully buttoned lab coat over her lightly armored body. Long, blue hair fell from underneath a blue helmet with a large red triangle in the middle above her nose. A pair of thin-framed glasses balanced evenly on her nose, reflecting their faces right back them. Her eyes were blue as well and her skin was pale in color, much like Roll's since she was almost never out in the sun for any various reason. She dusted her coat off with her right hand and then rested both of her hands in her lab coat's front pockets. Her design was more mature-looking than Roll's since, if she were a human being, she would probably be in her mid twenties whilst Roll wouldn't look a day over fourteen or so. Gate's eyes shifted to Roll, growing a bit larger as she looked the robotic girl up and down. Roll returned the stares as well, looking Gate over with her own eyes.

"Another Reploid…? Who might you be?" Gate asked Roll.

"Roll," Roll replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Gate."

"Oh, believe me, the pleasure's all mine," Gate replied as a Met walked by carrying a large box on its head. Gate picked the box up as the Met walked by and rested it on the table next to it. "Wrench, where did she come from?"

"Some kids went poking around in the cave up north and found her there in a capsule. The capsule was apparently jolted open by that quake we felt last night. I had a few of the guys help me bring her back to my workshop. I pumped her full of juice and she's been up and running ever since," Wrench explained. "There's something wrong with her, though."

"Oh?" Gate turned to Roll. "What's the problem, Roll?"

Roll pointed to her forehead.

"My memory data seems to be a bit fragmented and all over the place. In my current state, I can't seem to repair it on my own. Wrench told me that you would be able to fix it for me," Roll said.

"A memory defrag? Sure, I can do that," Gate replied, snapping her fingers. "Just have a seat on this table here and shut your primary systems down so we get started."

**G**ate sat on the other side of the room, typing away on her transparent keyboard. Wrench sat next to her in a hovering chair, looking over at Roll who sat a couple of feet away with a few cables attached to her head at the base of the skull. Roll sat leaning over the edge of the table, using her hands to balance her body. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and over her face, barely moving as Gate's computer did its task to defragment her memory. A pair of Mets oversaw the task, walking around in circles from terminal to terminal and making mental notes on the information being reproduced. Wrench looked behind her at the enormous screen on the wall, showing various things about Roll along with a holographic representation of her body. Wayd would have more than likely understood everything that was there, but to his older sister it was nothing but line after line of complete technical gibberish.

"Oh-ho! Now this is something you don't see everyday," Gate said.

"What'cha find out about her, Doc?" Wrench inquired.

"Follow me." Gate stood up and walked over to Roll. "Touch her body, Wrench."

"What?" Wrench asked. "No way I'm touching another girl's body. I'm not like that!"

"Not in that way, Wrench," Gate sighed. "Just rest your hand on her shoulder or something. Go on."

"Alright…" Wrench reached out and rested her hand on Roll's smooth right leg. "She's… warm."

"Exactly," Gate said, pocketing her hands again. "Reploid skin, like mine, is normally synthetic does not give off heat of any kind unless our primary internal systems' temperature has risen to a point that our cooling system cannot remedy."

"If that's true, how can her body be this warm if you told her to shut her primary systems down a few minutes ago?" Wrench asked, pulling her hand off Roll's leg.

"I did," Gate replied, looking back at Roll. "Roll's skin is not synthetic like mine. Hers is actual living tissue, capable of generating its own, natural heat." Gate ran her right forefinger along the entire length of Roll's left thigh. "She's so soft. This is something the Reploid world hasn't seen before. I would love to meet her creator."

"Hey, Doc, could you stop feeling up the girl's body like that? You're creeping me out," Wrench asked.

Gate returned her hand to her coat pocket.

"Sorry, Wrench. I'm just a little fascinated, that's all," Gate said. "Roll here is quite an interesting—" A small chime cut her off. "It seems that her memory defrag is complete."

Roll's eyes slowly opened and the first thing she did was reach behind her head, pulling the cables from their sockets. The two stepped away as she got down of the table, standing with one hand across her face.

"How do you feel, Roll?" Gate asked.

"My freaking head hurts," Roll replied.

"That's to be expected," Gate said to her.

"And your memory? Do you remember any of the stuff you couldn't?" Wrench asked.

There was a ten second silence before Roll's reply. After the silence, Roll stood up and opened her emerald green eyes completely, speaking in a slightly livelier voice.

"Project serial number: "ROL-002". Personal handle: "Roll II". Creation Date: "September 12th 20XX"," Roll said, catching Gate's attention.

"September 12th 20XX? You were made before the Reploid Era?" Gate asked.

"Yeah, I was."

_This is simply fascinating. I must find out who this child's creator was._ Gate thought, straightening her glasses.

"Wrench," Roll said, turning to the only human in the room.

"What can I do for ya, Roll?" Wrench replied, somewhat energetically.

"The place where you recovered my body, I need you to take me there immediately. There is something I must do urgently."

**T**he winds blew through the area constantly as the Wrench led the two Reploids up a wide mountain path. Gate walked at Roll's left since the wind blew Roll's long hair to the right. Wrench walked ahead of the two, ultimately leading them to the mouth of the cave where Roll was found and recovered from. She stopped at the outside letting Roll and the doctor head inside first. Roll found what she was looking for about twenty feet into the cave, embedded between a pair of large boulders. It was there that her red capsule sat against the stone walls of the cave. The front cover of the capsule lay on the dust ground in front of it, covered in what appeared to be water. Water also dripped out of the inside of the open capsule itself, the ground soaking it up moments after it hit it. The insides were still glowing with a blue light as she approached it, slowly and cautiously. Roll stopped as a brighter blue light filled the inside of the capsule and the holographic image of a little girl appeared in front of her, fading in and out.

The girl in the hologram didn't look a day over nine years old. She had on an unbuttoned, white lab coat over a knee-length red frock. She wore a pair of large, red boots with thick, silver soles on her feet. She had a head of blonde hair, tied into a long ponytail with a green ribbon, and a pair of bright green eyes, just like Roll's. In the projection, the girl was looking around with a cocked brow. She eventually ended up facing to the right with her arms akimbo and an annoyed look on her light-skinned mug.

"Hey, Doc, could you get off your lazy butt and help me get this hologram recorder program up and running?" the girl asked in a mildly ticked off voice.

A voice replied to her question—a male, Russian voice.

"Ah, come on! My favorite show is on!"

The girl in the hologram bent down and picked up a large piece of steel, resting it on her right shoulder.

"Either, you can come over here willingly, or I'm going to have to use the "power of persuasion" on you…"

"Oh, that? That's been operational all along, you know."

"Oh…" The piece of steel slipped out of her hands, hitting the ground with a loud clang before she dusted her hands off. "(Right. I knew that.)" She cleared her throat and rested her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly with a wide grin. "Testing. One, two, three. Is this thing on? Good. Now then, time for a public service announcement."

Wrench rested her hands behind her head, cocking her head to one side.

"Hey, Roll, who the heck is this weird kid?" she asked.

Roll sat down in front of the capsule on her legs, staring at the hologram.

"She's… my mother…" Roll replied, immediately catching Gate's attention.

"Your mother?" Gate asked. "This little girl is your creator?!"

Both Gate and Wrench stood in shock; Roll looked totally unscathed by it all.

"Yeah, she is," Roll said. "She may look like her brain's shot to hell, but she was quite competent when she created me."

The girl in the hologram continued to speak afterwards.

"If this holographic recording is being watched that would mean three things have transpired: Roll has woken up from her long sleep, the world's screwed up and I forgot to cut the stupid B-roll on this stupid recording," she went on to say, standing up straight, clearing her throat once again. "Roll, my daughter, my colleague and I would have loved to be there to see you wake up in a new era. But alas, it was not meant to be. I hope that you will find a purpose in the new era you now inhabit. Just know that we all love you and wish you well." She turned to her right and rested her hand on a red sphere that sat on a nearby desk. "In the capsule, you should find a large orb that looks just like this one. In it you'll find some things Doctor C and I packed in there for you. They should help you find your brother."

"Roll has a brother?" Wrench asked.

The hologram faded out and the image of another robot's face appeared in the little girl's place. The mug shot was instantly recognized by Gate; Wrench noticed the look of shock on her face. The girl's face appeared again with an electronic clipboard in her hands, looking down at it.

"We're not sure if he's still operational, but you should look for him just the same," Roll's creator said, running her finger down the clipboard in her hands. "One last thing before I go, though, kiddo. I have no idea how he'll react once he sees you. I doubt that he knows of your existence. You see, I had to keep your creation a little secret from my dad since I… err… borrowed a bit of your brother's design blueprints to make you."

The Russian man's voice came from somewhere in the room afterwards.

"Borrowed?" He laughed out loud. "Nice save there, kid! Borrowed. Hah ha ha!"

"Shaddap, old man! Don't make me come over there and whack you some!" the little girl said, shaking a fist in his direction. She immediately regained her composure, clearing her throat again. "You should just ignore Doctor C—he's a bit under the influence at the moment. Anyway, inside the orb there'll be a program you'll need. It's not one you can install yourself, unfortunately. I didn't get a chance to really finish its installation program. You should have it done for you as soon as possible, though. It's to disable the limiter in your combat program. I trust you might run into a bit of trouble sooner or later." The hologram started to become scrambled and distorted soon afterwards. "Damn stupid piece-of-crap machine's conking out on me now. Great. I really have the get Doctor C to fix this. Well, seems that my time is up here. Can't say that I'll see you around Roll… Take care of yourself, okay?"

The projection went dead.

Roll moved towards the capsule afterwards and peered inside; removing the large, wet orb from the bottom like her creator had instructed her to do. She held it against her chest for support since it was a bit slippery from the water. She could see her distorted reflection in its smooth, circular surface as she ran her hand across it. Wrench walked up next to Roll as she stood up with her hands in her shorts pockets.

"She seemed like a lively kid. I would love to meet her," Wrench said to her.

"As would I, but that message was recorded over some three hundred years ago. I believe that my creator would have already reached a state of negative capability." Roll turned around to face Gate. "Doc, can you install this program in me like my creator said?"

Gate nodded. "Something so simple? Sure, I'll do it for you."

Wrench looked at the watch around her wrist.

"Ah, crap! I forgot that Seventy-Nine is waiting for me to come fix his leg." She began running back to the entrance of the cave. "I'll run along ahead of you two. I'll meet you at the labs later, okay?"

Gate nodded and then called after her.

"Alright. Bring Wayd with you when you come back. I want to show him something."

"Sure. I'll remember to bring the brat—"

Wrench's voice trailed off as she disappeared back the way they came.

"Well, Roll," Gate said, turning to the one next to her, "let's head back to the lab and install that program into you. Also," she tugged lightly on what remained of Roll's clothes, "we'll need to get you outfitted with something other than this. I think that Wrench has just the thing for you."


	3. Phase Two: Duel

**Phase Two**: Duel

**H**eavy rainfall pelted the earth below, falling relentlessly from the dark skies above. The residents of Doppler Island sought the refuge of their respective homes as the random streaks of lightning seemed to split the heavens asunder, followed almost instantly by the loud booming of thunder. Trees swayed to one side in the strong winds, some of them almost touching the ground. Children slept with their parents that night, scared of what was going on outside of their homes.

Roll stood in on of Gate's upstairs rooms with her arms folded in front of a window. Her emerald eyes were slightly narrowed as she stared out into the storm, watching the lighting strike the sea on the not so distant horizon. With her limiter removed, Roll had changed somewhat. Gone was her somewhat cheery smile that some were fortunate enough to see; now replaced by a more serious look. Her hair was done into a long ponytail, tied at the base and just before the end by a pair of green ribbons with the front part somewhat spiky. Thanks to Wrench and Gate, she now stood in a set of relatively normal clothes. Over her new form-fitting, black, turtleneck suit, Roll wore a short red skirt with a pair of large cargo pockets on either side. A pair of large, red boots with shiny black soles was now on her feet—made by Dr. Gate. A sleeveless vest-like shirt disappeared into her short skirt.

To Roll's immediate right was the orb she retrieved from the capsule she slept in; it was opened and its contents lay on the table. A pair of red and black gloves sat next to pair of twin blades. The blades were slightly curved and from what she had gathered from another holographic message inside the orb, they were made from the same material used to line Roll's skeleton. The blades themselves were unnaturally sharp and thanks to that, Wrench was now nursing a cut right forefinger from just barely touching one of them. Roll had been practicing with them for the duration of the day's morning in one of Gate's interactive holographic training rooms, cutting all sorts of randomly generated enemies apart. Gate herself was surprised at how quickly Roll had taken to fighting.

The gloves on the table next to the blades were made by both Wrench and Gate while Roll was busy hacking holographic projections to death with her new toys. After her training her training session, Roll learned of the Mavericks and the war that occurred ten years before her awakening. She learned of the one that started the war—a Reploid named Sigma. Sigma was one of the first, created many years ago when the Reploid era began. She learned of his creator—a Doctor Cain—long since killed in the war. Sigma was known for his undying hatred for human beings and his many attempts at wiping them off the planet completely. And every time he threatened the world, there were always two that stood in his way of the annihilation of the human species. She learned of the ace Maverick Hunter, Zero, and his many accomplishments at keeping the Maverick threat at bay. He was also one of the Hunters that lead resistance forces during the war. She also learned about the one who confronted Zero on the battlefield. X—her brother.

From what she had learned of her brother, X was never one to try to solve a problem by unnecessary use of brute force. He hated the fact that he had to blast others into space dust almost every time, be they Maverick or not. It was because of his nature that X was ranked lower than most other Maverick Hunters. X had also made various friends amongst the human race, something few Reploids had the odd pleasure of doing since back then if humans weren't making Reploids, they generally stayed away from them. Gate told her that X was last seen on the battlefield, leading one of the many groups against the Maverick armies and that he disappeared after going after Sigma himself. Many thought that X had died during the war, but as no body was recovered many still believed he was alive and some searched desperately for him. But as no one found not even the slightest trace of their blue friend, the hope they had soon faded with time.

Roll for one would not believe that her brother was dead and would have combed even the depths of Hell itself to find him. With the storm raging on with all its fury outside, Roll could do nothing but stay and wait, staring outside into the winds and rains. On the floor below hers, Wrench and Wayd slept in Gate's lab. Since they didn't leave before the storm raged up, Gate suggested that they slept in the lab whilst she finished up a few repairs with Roll's capsule she had some Metools help her transport back to the lab for further analysis.

She let out a long sigh.

_Thinking about him all night won't get me anywhere. _Roll thought, looking at the bed behind her. She walked over to it and let her body fall into it, bouncing up slightly before coming to a complete rest. _I suppose I should just sleep… I'll think more about this in the morning._ And hopefully the weather will calm down by then.

**H**er eyes shifted quickly from left to right as she typed away on her terminal at an alarming rate of speed. There was no light in the room besides the light coming from her monitor screen and the only sound was the sound of her fingers typing away on the keyboard. The headset she had on sent back nothing but silence—the line was as dead as the room she sat in. It had been dead for quite some time and she was beginning to rather enjoy her time of peace and quiet. In front of her was a report she had been working on for a few hours and she savored every second of quiet she got to complete it in time for submission. The lightning flashed repeatedly outside the window she sat by and she looked outside at the city, watching many flee from the stormy weather. She sighed; pushing away some of her golden hair and typing with one hand as the door to the office slid to the side and a familiar face stepped in through the doorway.

"Thought I'd find you here. Working late again, Alia?"

She looked across at him from the corner of her eyes then back at the monitor.

"Oh, it's you," Alia said, quite coldly. "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else, Zero? Like cutting Mavericks in half with your big sword or trying to peek up Iris' skirt, or something?"

"That's rich… You're a regular laugh riot." Zero sat down in the seat not to far across from hers. "I take it the airways are quiet tonight?"

"Yes—much like this room was a minute ago before you waltzed in and destroyed the sacred silence," Alia replied, motioning for him to go away. "Now shoo—go find someone who actually wants you around right now."

"Alright, alright, I'm going," Zero said, standing up. "I'll see you later, Alia."

"Much, much later, I hope," Alia said as he disappeared out through the door.

"Zero!"

A female voice came from behind the long-haired Hunter; he turned around to find a welcome face walking up to him. It was Iris—the Headquarters' new head tactical advisor and the one Reploid that Zero had eyes for. She was shorter than he was, with her long, brown hair draping down her back. Iris had a pair of shy blue eyes that would always seem to avoid his when he looked at her directly.

"Glad I caught up with you, Zero," she said to him. "When did you get back?"

"Just now actually," he replied, turning completely around. "Did you miss me?"

Iris looked away and chuckled.

"I missed Alia yelling at you, so in a sense, yeah, I missed your red self," Iris replied, walking around him. She locked her left arm in his right arm as she walked past him, pulling him alongside her as she headed down the empty hallway. "Come on! Tell me all about your trip while you walk me down to level ten."

"H-Hey! Don't run so fast!" Zero said as Iris dragged him down the corridor.

Behind them, standing in the doorway, Alia watched as they both disappeared down the corridor with her arms folded.

_…Iris… Ever since they salvaged her CPU and reworked her she's been glued to him, using those eyes of hers to woo him into submission. How Zero can just throw away the memory of Iris trying to vaporize him from existence and him having to kill her to save his own steely hide is beyond me. Thanks to a bit of tampering, Iris doesn't remember a thing about trying to kill Zero or even having a brother for that matter._ Alia thought, heading back inside. _And Zero just accepts that… just for the sake of being with her…_ Alia looked outside at the city below. _…X… Where the hell are you…? Why won't you come back… to me…?_

**R**oll's eyes shot open the next morning and she instantly sat up, burying her face in her hands then running her hands down the length of her face. The spiky front part of her hair fell into her face as she looked over at the window, noticing that the rains were still falling from the skies. She sat up and put her boots back on, walking across the room to the window nearby. The rains were still falling somewhat heavily, but at least the thunder and lightning had receded for the most part. The clouds above were still thick and bursting at the seams with rain as they moved across the island at a snail's pace, keeping the residents in their homes. Roll could see a few Mets flying around in the rain; they seemed to rather enjoy it. A sigh escaped the emerald-eyed girl's lips as she picked her blades off the table, sliding into the X-shaped sheath she wore at the back of her waist. With a quick swipe, she took the gloves off the table, sticking them into her back pocket as she headed out of the room. Roll could hear voices coming from downstairs as she neared the top of the stairwell, tugging on the ribbon in her hair again.

"…So, Gate, you think that Roll's brother is still alive out there somewhere?" Wayd asked.

"I… really don't know. I'd like to think so," Gate replied.

Roll stopped at the middle of the stairs.

"No one knows for sure if X died or not in the war," Gate continued. "I personally hope that he did survive. I'd love to see the blue guy again sometime."

Wrench cut in afterwards.

"Yeah… And it would really suck for Roll if she went all that way to find out that her brother died years ago."

"It probably would, Wrench," Roll said to her, walking down the stairs and stepping into the lab itself with her hair bouncing on her back. "It would hurt, sure—but it won't hurt as much as not knowing for sure if he's still alive or not." Roll walked past them. "I'm going either way—to find out for sure."

Wayd nodded and tapped the side of his glasses.

"That's good spirit right there," he said. He walked in front of Roll and looked up at her with his eyebrow up. "When are you planning on leaving?"

Roll thought for a second.

"I was planning on leaving as soon as possible, when the storm fully passed, but…" Roll looked over her shoulder at the two sitting at the table behind her. Her left eyebrow slowly rose up. "…There's no way of this island, is there?"

Wrench shrugged.

"Well… not that we know of… All the ships were destroyed in the war before this island got separated from the mainland," Wrench explained, yawning a bit. "No one comes to this island from the mainland at all. I doubt that anyone even knows this place exists, to tell you the truth. But even if someone from the mainland did come for us, I doubt that anyone would want to leave this place."

"Why wouldn't you?" Roll asked. "I'm sure that they're plenty of humans out there just like you."

"That may be," Gate said, typing away on one of her many PCs, "but just so you know, the mainland has been in a state of chaos ever since the war. Mavericks are everywhere these days, and more and more innocent Reploids are slowly joining their ranks. The Maverick Hunters have been doing a somewhat decent job of keeping the Mavericks in check, but in time they will realize that there just aren't enough Hunters to fully quell the growing Maverick threat. Unlike here on Doppler Island, most humans on the mainland live apart from Reploids and would shoot them on sight. Your makeup, Roll, is unlike anything the Reploid world has seen before. With your appearance alone, you might be able to—how should I say this?—infiltrate the human cities and find out any information you can about your brother." Gate stood up and looked over at a cylindrical capsule next to her. "But, you mustn't let anyone know what you are or all hell's going to break loose."

"You make it sound like some sort of super-secret stealth mission," Roll said. She watched as Gate reached across and tossed her a red jacket. "What's this?"

"Just a little something I made for you, Roll," Wrench said, cocking her head to the side and smiling. "I figured your ensemble could use one so I made it last night before I crashed down here. You like it?"

Roll slipped her arm into the left sleeve then her right in to the right sleeve, pulling on the collar a little to straighten it out. It was red with a black streak running down the length of the arms with the image of a wolf howling at the moon sewn into the back. Underneath it were the words "Running Free" with a red heart separating the words. It was slightly thick and the inside was lined with a soft white material.

"It's perfect, Wrench, thanks." Roll rested her hands in her skirt's side pockets and looked up. "How's the finger?"

"It stings a little, but I'll live," Wrench said, giggling. She glanced at her watch. "Damn… I wish the rains would let up. I have to go up north and pick some apples to make pie with later. Plus with all the rain and wind we had last night, the path's probably health risk. Oh well, there goes that idea…"

"I'll go with you, Wrench. The rains aren't going to last more than an hour at the most," Roll said to her. "Plus, I still need to repay you for the clothes."

"Gee, thanks, Roll," Wrench said.

"Well, there's nothing you two girls can do until the rain stops," Wayd said to them, hopping on top of one of the tables. "What do you people want to do to kill time? I personally wouldn't mind examining Roll's body and—" A whack around the head from his older sister stopped him in his tracks. "OW! What was that for?!"

"You little pervert! You're not laying one finger on Roll!" she replied, throwing him into a headlock.

Even Roll couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

**T**he rains came to an end as the storm slowly passed by the island, leaving the streets littered with the leaves and branches torn from the trees by the wind and rains. They were already working to clean up when Roll and Wrench emerged from the inner sanctum of Gate's laboratory, looking up at the patches of blue sky amidst the white clouds. The animals were already on the move as the skies became clearer, emerging from the thick underbrush near Gate's lab building. Several Metools were walking around outside with the general public, balancing boxes of leaves and branches on their helms while carrying them to various locations. The both of them looked at each other then headed up the nearby path leading to the northern path of the island where Wrench had planted a group of apple trees some years back. She only hoped that they were still standing.

**A** fallen tree split into three parts and rolled to either side as Roll stood up and sheathed her weapons. She dusted her gloved hands off as Wrench stared in awe at the chunks of wood rolling past her as the two continued up the path. There was debris everywhere in their way; most of it was avoidable. They continued along their way, trying to avoid walking into the mud that was washed there by the rainwater. It was a good thing that they didn't live in a flood-prone area. Their walk went quietly, but not unnoticed. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of eyes watched their every movement as someone seemed very interested in their actions. With no movement except for the natural rise and fall of its chest, the figure scanned their every breath and movement, concealed by the thick leaves of the trees surrounding them. Three more eyes appeared from the trees behind the figure and the figure looked back at them, staring for a few seconds before nodding. They all disappeared as silently as they came, leaving the figure to watch the two once again with a small, but growing smile on its face.

They reached their destination minutes later and Wrench walked ahead of Roll, heading to the spot where her apple trees still stood. They were virtually untouched, thanks to the fact that they were surrounded by several other trees that protected it from the direct force of nature's wrath. A few apples were blown from the branches, but nothing more than that. She stopped in front of a tree and gave it a hug, rubbing her face against it. Roll cocked a brow at the strange display of emotion that Wrench was showing towards a large plant.

"All right—I am officially convinced that humans are the weirdest thing ever spawned from creation," Roll commented, resting her hands on her hips. "How many of those things do you need?"

Wrench picked up a pair of them that rested on a clump of wet grass nearby, looking them over and deeming them usable.

"About six of these will do. I'll carry three and you carry three," Wrench replied.

"No problem—now let's hurry before…" Roll immediately turned around, both hands on her blades' handles. Her eyes narrowed as she looked into the trees and bushes that surrounded the area.

"Roll, what's wrong?" Wrench asked, stepping forward.

"Don't move…" Roll's eyes slowly rolled to the right then back to the left. "We're being watched."

"Watched, by whom?" Wrench asked, walking forward.

There was a small flash of light and Wrench closed her eyes, only to open them and find that Roll was standing with both her hands in her pockets and three red eyes glaring at them from the trees. She gasped and stepped back, dropping her three apples as she backed up towards the truck of the apple tree. Three machines walked out of the bushes afterwards; each of them looked exactly like the other. About ten feet tall and each wearing specially designed, green armor with an insignia that Wrench recognized instantly after memories of the war resurfaced. The three standing in front of Roll were all Maverick soldiers. They each had a single small eye that was aimed at Roll. They stared with malice in their single eye, each of them smashing their large left fist into their right palms. Wrench hid behind the nearby apple tree as they hovered to Roll's position, two at her sides and one in front. Roll sighed and walked forward towards them, her hands still her pockets. They were all surprised as they saw her pace quicken to a run, yanking her hands out of the confines of her pockets.

"You're all going to die here today for disturbing the people on this island," Roll said, altering her course to head to one of them. "What matters to me is how much of a fight you're going to put up before I knock the whole lot of you on your overgrown tin asses."

The one she dashed towards swung its fist horizontally at her at an alarming speed. Roll stopped and grabbed its oncoming attack, gritting her teeth before using the momentum to yank its bulky body off the ground, above her head and back down into the ground behind her. It hit the ground with a loud crash, breaking apart the earth and scaring away every bird that dwelled in the trees of the surrounding area. Roll quickly ran around to its still recovering body and drove her foot into its shoulder joint, smiling and then yanking its arm with some degree of her strength to tear it clean off its body. She tossed the arm aside, grabbing her fallen opponent by the neck. If it had normal eyes like hers, they would have been swelling as she grunted, yanking its head off, and tossing it into the air. It landed in front of the other two as Roll turned around, walking slowly towards them with a big, friendly smile on her face.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves—picking on kids like this," Roll said, giggling.

From its vantage point, the figure watched as Roll bested the remaining two. The figure looked on as Roll ran up the length of one of their arms after a missed attack, wrapping her hands around the Maverick's neck before it got the chance to recover from its attack. She stood behind its head with her feet anchored on its shoulders and pulled back hard. The screeching sound of metal being torn apart and wires being popped apart was enough to make Wrench's skin crawl as she peeked out from behind the apple tree, watching as the newly decapitated Maverick's body fluttered around like a headless chicken before eventually falling on its knees then falling to a side. Roll spun his head around on her right forefinger and then tossed it behind her, walking towards the third. The Maverick stepped back and faded into nothing before Roll's eyes in a light flash of green. Roll sighed, disappointed, and dusted her gloved hands off. Wrench looked back as she heard footsteps coming from behind her and looked around to see a Reploid wearing red armor walking in her direction. Wrench stood up, recognizing him instantly.

"Zero…" Wrench said as he stopped next to her. "What are you doing here?"

Zero stopped, looking across at her with his usual serious, business-like face.

"I received word from HQ that there were Mavericks threatening people on this island," Zero replied. "I didn't even know this island here was inhabited…"

"Well, you learn something every day." Wrench turned to face Roll who stood staring at Zero. "If you're looking for the Mavericks, their scrap remains are over there. She beat 'em all just now with her bare hands."

"What?"

Zero walked out into the open and stopped about fifteen feet away from Roll, looking around at the damaged bodies of the Mavericks on the ground. He was shocked to see how badly the Mavericks were beaten yet the one that stood in the center of the battleground was completely untouched. He centered his sights at Roll that stood there, looking off to the side at him with narrowed eyes.

_This… kid beat them unarmed?_ _This is unbelievable_. Zero thought. _Just who is this kid, anyway?_

"Hey, Missy," Roll said in an annoyed voice. "Quit staring at me like that. I'm not a les-bot, you know."

Zero's eyes shot open in surprise.

"Missy? Excuse me, kid, but I ain't no girl," Zero said in defense. _Why the hell does everyone think I'm a girl?_

"Oh, you're a man? I couldn't tell with the long hair and those pair of green boobs you've got there," Roll said to him. "If you hadn't spoken I wouldn't have known… Zero."

"You… already know who I am?" Zero asked. "Well, that takes care my half of the introductions. Would you be so kind as to—"

"I'm not telling you my name, fairy-bot," Roll cut in with rudely. "All I really care about is you telling me where I can find X. I can't believe he hung around with someone like you, but you have information I need."

"Information about X? No way am I giving information to a little kid like you," Zero said, folding his arms. "Especially after what you just said to me. I am however curious as to how you've come to know the name of X. How about you tell me what I want to know, and then I'll think about telling you anything."

Roll smiled.

"How about this?" Roll drew both her blades from their sheaths on her back. "You draw that fancy weapon of yours and defend yourself. Since you don't want to freely tell me, I will have to beat it out of you."

The figure watching from the trees smiled.

"My, my—isn't this interesting?"

Zero watched her walk slowly towards him with her pair of blades reflecting the sunlight.

"What are you? Crazy? I'm not fighting a little girl!" Zero said to her.

"Then you're going to die quicker, pitifully regretting your not defending yourself against me," Roll said, beginning to run at him with the blades at her sides.

Zero had no choice. He whipped his saber from its resting place and swiped it downwards at her. Roll held her blades up in an X-shaped formation in front of her, blocking the attack from Zero. Wrench covered her eyes as green energy mixed with metallic sparks flew every which way. Zero looked down at Roll with gritted teeth, staring her in the face. Roll's eyes were slightly narrowed and she had a somewhat amused look on her face. It wasn't surprising that one that single-handedly destroyed two Mavericks could equal him in a match of stretch, but he soon realized that not only was Roll equaling him, she was also besting him slowly but surely. He pushed forward and they pushed away from each other, both of them jumping back and landing at the same time. Roll began walking towards him again and he stood with his saber in his right hand, green energy flowing around it.

"Good—you're not running away," Roll said to him. "I may enjoy this yet."

"Kid, you're going to get hurt if you continue this," Zero said to Roll. "If you choose to continue, I won't hold back against you."

Roll began running again.

"You'd better hurry up and cut loose," Roll said nearing him. "The last thing I want to hear is you saying that you lost because you were "holding back!"

Zero blocked Roll's strike and pushed her off, hopping back.

"Quit it, kid! Do you wanna die?!" Zero asked, sidestepping Roll's next attack then swiping horizontally as she turned around.

Roll turned around, raising her right blade to block Zero's saber.

"You won't be the one to bring pause to me, fairy-bot," Roll said to Zero, swiping at him with her free hand. He stepped back to avoid it, but didn't see her following attack until it was too late. She jumped back after attacking, leaving Zero with his hand clutching his right cheek. He pulled it off and looked at his hand to see that his palm was stained with bright crimson. Further inspection led him to realize that he was cut from just under his eye to just above the chin. Roll's mouth formed into a small but noticeable smile. "Oh-ho! He does bleed!"

"You've cut me…" Zero said, looking down at his hand then up at Roll.

Roll nodded twice.

"I know. I missed, though," Roll said. "I was actually aiming for that pointy nose of yours."

Zero laughed.

"A workout at last! The kid gloves are off now, kiddo," Zero said. "Have at you!"

Roll stepped back as Zero swiped vertically then slapped his hands with her right hand, using that very motion to spin around to his back. Zero stumbled to the side and she lowered her aim slightly, slicing into the plated armor on his back. The blade cut through it almost effortlessly, making its way through Zero's armor with little resistance. Zero felt the pain of the blade cutting through his armor and stumbled forward, almost falling over as he turned around to face her. Roll closed her eyes.

"You know, you're never going to be able to beat me with that wild weapon of yours. Not the way you're using it." Roll closed her eyes. "Your attacks have too many openings. All attack and no defense—your opponents must seriously suck to get beat by you."

"Shut up! I didn't come out here to be lectured by a kid!" Zero shouted angrily, getting back to his feet fully. "I won't be humiliated here by a child!"

Roll cocked a brow.

"Child?" Roll laughed. "I'm even older than you are!"

Zero rushed forward, his saber dragging along the ground and tearing a path through the mud and hard stones. He raised it off the ground and threw it around to his right side. Roll waited until the very last minute to react.

_Foolish._

Zero swiped at Roll with the saber in his right hand, its trajectory getting lower and lower as it cut through the air at an extremely high speed. Roll stepped into Zero and wrapped her arm around his right arm, twisting it to the left towards her. Zero's grip on his saber immediately weakened and he dropped it next to her feet, gritting his teeth to bear the pain as he looked Roll in her eyes. Roll looked back with zero emotion as she threw her feet into Zero's chest—hard—separating him from his right arm and sending his body flying straight into the trunk of a tree not too far away. He hit back first, bouncing off and landing flat on his face. Wrench's eyes shot open at what she saw happening before her eyes, watching as Roll sheathed her weapons then walked over to the place where Zero's body lay with his saber and his arm in tow.

The figure watching from above smiled.

"Flawless."

Roll walked over to see Zero gripping a clump of grass tightly in his left hand as he tried to get back to his feet. Roll tossed his belongings on the ground in front of him, reaching down and picking him up off the ground by his neck. He stared into her eyes as she pulled his face close to hers, a smile on her face.

"Just as I thought. Easily angered and once angry, easy to beat the crap out of. Typical of one of _that man's_ creations."

Wrench walked out from behind the tree, stopping not too far behind Roll.

"You're not… going to kill him, are you, Roll?" Wrench asked.

Roll looked back at Wrench then looked the broken Zero in the eyes. He looked back at her, breathing heavily as sparks mixed with his synthetic red blood flew from where his arm was severed.

_Those eyes of hers…_ Zero thought, limply hanging from her grasp. _They have the same fire in them that his had… _

"No—I'm not going to kill him… He still hasn't told me what I need to know yet," Roll replied. "Wrench… you think that you and the Doc can fix him? I need him good and functional by the time I question him again."

"Y-Yeah… I think so…" Wrench replied.

"Sorry you weren't able to get your apples like you wanted to, Wrench," Roll said, looking back at her. "I'll come back for them after we take him back to Gate's lab, I promise."

"Sure… Thanks."

"Don't look so down, Wrench," Roll said, tossing Zero's body over her shoulder. "Take his arm and try not to touch that saber. Remember what happened last time."

"Yeah, yeah." Wrench stuck her tongue out at Roll as she got down to take Zero's severed arm off the ground.

Roll bent her knees to pick up his saber and looked up as she gripped its handle. The figure that had been watching all along jumped from the tree it stood in, floating downwards slowly and landing not too far away from her. Roll looked up as the figure walked in her direction, clapping slowly. Roll's eyes made a quick examination of the one in front of her. From what she could see, the figure was identified as a female Reploid—or at least it looked like one. Her body was wrapped in a white cloak that blew around with the morning's light breezes. The hood of her cloak was off and resting on her back. The top half of her face was covered by a veil of her white hair what draped down to the center of her back. A pair of oddly-shaped earrings hung from her ears and spun around in a circle every time the wind blew. The air seemed to grow colder with her there; even Wrench could feel it. Roll couldn't tell what she was wearing underneath her cloak save her pair of white boots and pair of long white gloves with black fingers. She had a more mature-looking body than Roll and was also taller than her.

"I must commend you for allowing me the fortunate pleasure of witnessing that glorious battle," she said to Roll. "You are quite skilled and powerful indeed, little one."

"Um… No disrespect or anything—but who the hell are you?" Roll asked, steadying Zero's body on her shoulder.

The white Reploid shook her head.

"Oh, how uncharacteristically impolite of me." She bowed slightly with her hand on her chest. "My personal handle is Deene—and it's quite a pleasure to meet one like you, little one."

Zero managed to turn his head in her direction.

"Y-You…" he managed to say.

She turned to Zero and shook her head.

"Ah, so you are still somewhat conscious for now. I must applaud your role as punching page today, Mister Zero. Truly stupendous," Deene said to him. "Your pansy self is tougher than I thought. But even if you were still in one piece and one hundred percent combat effective, I still wouldn't have time to tussle with you today. I have a date with someone special. One mustn't be late, you know." Deene turned around and began to walk away, stopping after three steps and looking back. "We will meet again in future. We'll continue our conversation then. Until we meet again, keep yourself alive… Roll."

Deene took a giant leap into the branches above where she quickly disappeared from their view. She left Roll standing with a cocked brow, but Roll later sighed and began walking back in the direction of the town.

"Come on—let's head back and get him patched up," Roll said, walking ahead of Wrench.

"Sure, but aren't you worried about her? She could be a Maverick and still on the island!"

Roll shook her head.

"We'll worry about her later."

There was a small beep coming from Zero's helmet and Alia's voice emanated from somewhere inside it.

"Hey, Zero, where the hell are you? It can't be taking you this long to get back from such a crappy mission! Zero? Hey, Zero! Respond dammit! …Zero? ZERO!"

Roll pushed him up in the air with her right hand until his head was next to hers. There was a small button near the base of the helm and she tapped it with the hilt of the saber answering the call.

"Due to situations beyond your control, Zero is missing an arm, unconscious, and is unable to take your call at this time. Please leave a message at the sound of the deafening silence," Roll said, tapping it again to cancel Alia's transmission.

"That girl's going to be royally worried now that you've done that, you know." Wrench said.

Roll dropped Zero back on her shoulder.

"Far from being my problem, Wrench." They walked for a short while until Roll looked across at Wrench with her eyebrow up. "Now that you mention it, I doubt that "Wrench" is your real name."

"Well, you're right. Wrench isn't my real name. It's a nickname I got since I always used to walk around carrying a wrench in my hands. Even though I kicked the habit years ago, they still kept calling me that so I guess it kinda stuck," Wrench explained, scratching the back of her head.

"Then what is your real name?" Roll asked.

"Kalinka. Kalinka Cossack," she replied.

Roll stopped as she heard the name watching her as she walked by.

"What?" Wrench asked, looking back at where Roll stopped. "Did I say something strange?"

Roll paused for a second then shook her head before running ahead of her.

"Not a thing! Last one there has to baby-sit this guy!"

"This is totally one-sided and you know it! Roll! Hey! Wait up!"


	4. Phase Three: History Lesson

Phase Three: **History Lesson**

**Z**ero lay on one of Gate's operating tables while Wrench worked on fully reattaching his arm with various tools that rested in a tray balanced perfectly on a Met's head. Gate sat across from where Wrench was working, monitoring the procedure from her large, and wall-mounted monitor in the laboratory. She monitored the information being fed to her from Zero's body, making sure that everything was in perfect working order. She trusted Wrench with the procedure, knowing how adept she was at such trivial tasks. Wayd sat next to Gate, carrying on a conversation with her about Zero, Roll and Reploid technology in general. It was also surprising to both him and Gate to see Zero—the red ace Maverick Hunter—lying on Gate's op table, having an arm reattached after a run-in with Roll. The headless bodies of the Mavericks sent there to fight Roll were recovered and taken to a deeper part of Gate's lab for her later analysis and study of the Maverick virus that had corrupted their internal systems, thus causing them to lose sight of their original purpose and turn into hostile and somewhat mindless killing machines.

Zero lay unconscious through the entire procedure, his body virtually still except for the twitching of his fingers every time Wrench correctly reattached a wire or fixed a circuit. Wrench wiped some sweat from her forehead with her right forearm as she let out a calm exhale, continuing to working on the finishing touches. During the last stages of the procedure, Zero's systems returned to their normal working order and his eyes shot open, quickly closing afterwards as light flooded into them, rendering his ability to see clearly useless for a short while. His proper vision returned slowly afterwards and he looked around, noticing Wrench's familiar face next to his, her eyes focusing intently on sealing his shoulder. He could feel the electrical signals coming from his newly fixed right arm, signaling that Wrench's work was just about done. Noticing the change in the information, Gate and Wayd stood up and walked over to the table, looking down at Zero. Wrench finally noticed he was awake after she had finished sealing his shoulder; he slowly sat up, looking over at Gate who stood with her hands buried in her lab coat's side pockets.

"…Alexia?" Zero asked, looking over at Gate.

Gate turned around and headed back to her computer keyboard, typing with one hand.

"Hello there, Zero. I see you still haven't forgotten my first name." She finished her typing and returned, pushing her specs up a bit. "You should thank the girl next to you for reattaching your arm before you do anything else."

Zero looked down at his arm and folded a tight fist, looking over at Wrench afterwards.

"The girl I met in the forest… Thanks for the fix—it actually feels better than it used to before," Zero said.

Wrench nodded.

"It was an easy job," Wrench replied. "Took a little longer than usual to complete thanks to my finger's injury, though."

Zero's eyes turned back to Gate.

"So this is where you've been all this time. It hasn't been the same since the Maverick Hunter HQ lost one of its star Hunters," Zero said.

Gate lowered her head a little and sighed.

"Ha… I'll bet…"

Wayd turned to Gate, a puzzled look on his face as he stopped chewing his gum.

"You… were a Maverick Hunter, Doctor Gate?" he asked, moving the gum to the right side of his mouth's interior. "You've never shared this little tidbit of information with the rest of us."

Gate turned around and headed in the direction of her computer, hands in her pockets.

"You guys neglected to ask, Wayd," Gate replied, sitting in one of her hovering chairs and gliding it carefully through a pair of tables to another computer on the farther end of the room. "Yes, I was a Maverick Hunter once, but I retired from the ranks of the Hunters to live here in Doppler Town, one of the last places on this planet untouched by the hatred of our kind. Thanks to the Mavericks, human beings grew to hate and fear us just for being what we are. Since it had come to a point where almost every Reploid was branded as a Maverick regardless of viral infection or not, I sought and am still seeking to create counter virus—a program of sorts to counteract and hopefully annihilate the virus in infected subjects. I also hope that I can make it potent enough to cleanse the world of Mavericks and restore—if possible—a good name to the Reploid world."

"I see," Zero said, hopping off the table. "That would indeed give us a chance to relax for once." Zero looked around at everyone in the room; Gate noticed his frantic eyeball movements.

"She's not here." Gate turned back to face her computer as Zero turned to face her. "If you're looking for the girl you fought with earlier, she left about an hour and a half ago."

"Where is she?" Zero asked. "I want to talk with her."

"I would suggest you heading down to the east beach if you want to find her, but I wouldn't suggest fighting her again—I had to cover up your last tussle with her as me testing a new system out in the northern forest," Gate said. "And, Zero, I've already had Signas notified about what happened here. You are to report in by sundown, but until then you're under my supervision. Wrench, Wayd, can you two show Zero where she is? I need a bit of time alone to work on a few things. I'll join you at the beach when I'm finished here, okay?"

"Um, sure," Wayd said, blowing a bubble afterwards. "Follow us, Zero—and do try not to fight this time."

**T**he avian symphony of the white gulls that made the nearby cliffs their homes echoed out through the afternoon, carried by the salty sea winds that rolled across the sandy beach area ever so often. The entire beach teemed with life as large crabs trod along their sideways path across the white sand and large rocks that sat in the waters near the shoreline, overlooking clear waters and the coral reefs beneath. Fish swam near these rocks, hunting for their daily fill in the coral reef just offshore of Doppler island. The waves came at the shores in all sizes, from big to barely noticeable, rushing with much speed to the sandy shores before the water rolled back down into the wide ocean.

Roll sat at the edge of one of the large boulders sitting in the water not too far off the shore, her emerald eyes glued to the blue horizon. The pair of twin, green ribbons she had tied into her long hair were removed and her hair was left to be freely tossed about by the sea breezes. The cool breezes caressed her wet skin as the larger waves crashed into the rock directly in front of her, tossing a fresh coating of salty water onto her body. She was scantily clad in nothing but a white, two-piece bathing suit that Wrench had made for her when she headed back to the northern part of the island to pick a few of the ripened apples. It had a red heart on the top's center with a yellow 'R' sitting in the middle of it and a halo around its top.

With one finger, she scratched the back of one of the sea gull's neck as it sat beside her on the rock, looking up at its feathered family flying around above. The gull would ever so often flap its wings to scare away a few of the white crabs that would walk across the rock, looking for an afternoon snack. She looked up at a flock of gulls heading back to the cliffs and picked the one next to her up, tossing it into the air where it quickly rejoined the rest of its ilk. Roll's eyes found their way to the waters where she saw many fish swimming around in the reef. She decided to join them and pushed her body off the rock and dove straight into the waters, causing many of the surfacing fish to scatter to either side. Her slender body shot through the water like an arrow as she moved her body in a wavy motion with her hands at her sides, heading further and further down into the reef itself. The reef was as lively as it always was, with various types of sea life going about their daily business. She kept her body still to let it fall to the sandy bottom of the ocean, letting a few bubbles escape the sides of her mouth.

Looking up, she could see the sun dancing on the surface of the water, some of the rays filtering through the salt water she was now submerged in. The surface was some twenty to thirty feet above her and she walked along the ocean floor towards the reef, attracting the attention of many of the nearby fish. Large crabs skipped across her path as she neared the fish-inhabited reefs, scaring a few of the smaller ones away with her advance. A large eel, red in color with blue-colored eyes stuck its head out through a hole in one of the larger reef formations as she stopped in front of it, eyeballing the movements of the machine as she looked in the opposite direction at a small school of fish in the near distance. The anemones swayed back and forth with the ocean waters, attracting the attention of the fish that depended on the anemones for protection against their various predators. She pulled her right foot back as a resting ray burst from under the sands beneath her feet, swimming over to another spot where it quickly buried itself once again.

Being a machine, Roll required no air to survive under the ocean waters. The only thing that she really worried about was what the salt from the water would do to her hair after she got out of the water. Roll's attention was diverted to the right as the fish in the reef were scared away by something that approached from not too far away. She turned to the right and noticed a large, pale-skinned shark lurking on the outskirts of the reef. It moved slowly through the waters, inching ever closer to where she stood. The shark's attention shifted away from the reef and turned completely on Roll as it altered its swimming line to suit, setting a course directly for her. With deadly accuracy the shark sped through the waters in her direction. In its domain, the shark had the upper hand at swimming, but there was still one direction she could have gone: Up. She bent her knees and headed towards the surface as quickly as she could, narrowly escaping the vice-grip jaws of the ocean carnivore as it swam under her feet. It turned around and headed upwards behind her, speeding up with every second. She turned around and rested her right hand on the shark's nose, again as they were about to hit the surface to avoid an oncoming bite when a light blue energy began to grow around her fingertips. Her eyes grow as the energy grew larger.

_What the hell is—?_

The three looked over at the waters from where he stood as they walked out onto the sandy beach, noticing a small explosion come from beneath the water's surface. A small jet of water mixed with fresh crimson blood escaped shot from just beneath the surface, shooting some six feet into the air before gravity took its hold. They all headed toward edge of the water, coming to a skidding stop as Roll emerged from underneath the surface with her hair covering her face before she threw her head back. She looked over at the others, noticing Wayd and Wrench flagging her down from the sandy beach. She rolled her eyes at the sight of the red robot standing in front of her and began making her way back to the beach area, letting out a long, heavy sigh. Zero's eyes were far better than theirs and he noticed beforehand that Roll was carrying something out of the ocean as she neared the shore. The two humans stared in wonder as Roll walked in the shallow water with the body of the shark slung over her shoulder, with a trail of red blood leading out into the ocean. Wrench noticed that the blood was flowing from a large wound on the shark's head. The blood stained the sand as its head was drug across it; Roll stopped in front of the three, looking at the tallest human while she let the shark's body slide off her body to the left, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

"I hope the others don't have anything against eating Great White," Roll said to her, rubbing her left shoulder.

"What the heck did you do to that shark?" Wayd asked, looking at it with his hand on the frame of his glasses.

"To tell you the absolute, flawless truth, kiddo, I have no idea how I killed that shark. One second I'm trying to stop it from chewing on my ass and the next minute, boom!" Roll replied.

Zero got down on one knee in front of it and examined the bloody wound on the shark's face with his enhanced eyes, combing it up and down. He reached out to it and pulled a piece of the torn flesh aside, noticing that it appeared to have been burned. In fact, the entire length of the shark's body appeared darker than it should have been, indicated that the shark's body went through a massive temperature shift prior to its demise.

_This thing's been fried from the inside…_ Zero thought, standing up.

"I don't know what you did, but we'll be eating big tonight thanks to whatever it was," Wrench said, licking her lips and smiling while rubbing her palms together.

Roll's eyes shifted to the red robot behind her as she tossed her hair back.

"Now—what the heck is he doing here?" Roll asked pointing to Zero with her thumb.

"He's here to talk to you about something or the other." Wayd shrugged.

Roll turned to Zero.

"Now you see, Hunter, this here is what we call an equivalent exchange of information. You tell me things, I tell you things. Now earlier I remember telling you that I required information about and regarding the last known whereabouts of X. You still haven't told me what I need to know, so I'm not saying jack to your girly-looking self until you tell me what I asked you for," Roll said to him, sitting down on the sand.

"I suggest that you tell her what she wants to know, Zero."

Zero looked up to see Gate walking out onto the beach with her hands buried in her lab coat's pockets.

"Why, Alexia?" Zero asked. "You know I can't just tell anyone about X."

Gate nodded.

"Indeed—but this girl isn't just 'anyone', Zero," Gate explained.

"Oh?" Zero asked, folding his arms and cocking a brow. "So just who is this then?"

"This is Roll—she's X's sister," Gate explained.

Zero's arms dropped back to his side instantly.

"W-What? His sister? What are you talking about?" Zero asked.

Gate turned around and took her glasses off, beginning the trek back in the direction she came from.

"Follow me, everyone."

"**O**h—so that's how it is, huh?" Zero said, folding his arms and resting back against one of the lab's walls. "You know, if she'd have just said that from the beginning I would have told her what she wanted to know."

Gate shook her head and sat in front of the group next to Roll, still wearing her white, two-piece bathing suit.

"You're a bad liar, Zero. Always were and always will be," Gate said, shaking her head. "You wouldn't have believed her even if she did."

"Maybe." Zero stepped forward. "So, Roll's your name, huh?" Zero asked.

"Yeah, so?" Roll asked, folding her arms.

"If you're X's sister, why hasn't he ever mentioned you?" Zero asked, pointing in her direction.

Roll narrowed her eyes and centered them on Zero.

"Firstly, I don't like you. Secondly, I don't like being pointed at—and thirdly, X probably never told you about me 'cause he was never told about my existence, genius," Roll said in response.

"And might I ask why he wasn't told? Surely X would have wanted to know that his sister bot was being created," Zero went on to ask.

"Because my mother didn't want him to know. She made me—it was her call."

Zero chuckled.

"She didn't, did she?" he chuckled again. "Oh, this is rich."

"Oh really?" Roll walked in front of him, looking up into his face. "Tell me, Zero. What can you tell me about your creator, hmm? Can you tell me particulars about your creator? How about your creation date? Anything there? Huh, big boy?"

Zero looked to the side, avoiding her relentless gaze. He couldn't answer any of those questions and Gate knew this.

"Zero's memory was in a far worse state than yours when he was first brought to Maverick Hunter headquarters. None of the great minds back at the headquarters could fully repair the damage to his brain, so anything dating back before that day we put him back on his feet is either unrecoverable, broken data, or completely lost."

"I almost pity you…" She looked around him and saw the slight look of sadness on Wrench's face and rolled her eyes, turning around. "Alright, alright. Fine. I'll enlighten the poor bastard."

Roll sighed and walked over to the table next to where Gate sat, sitting and raising her left leg onto the table while she leaned forward to rest her left arm on it.

"Does the name "Thomas Light" mean anything to any of you in this room?" Roll asked. "If it rings a bell just raise your hand and answer."

"What? You're going to give us all some schooling now, is that it?" Zero asked.

Roll's expression shifted quickly to anger.

"You know, you might want to shut up right about now. You want to know about your past, correct? So when I choose to speak, you should choose to shut your freaking yap and listen."

Gate raised her hand.

"Doctor Light… I've heard his name come up plenty of times while I was a fledgling Hunter from the Elder Brains. Information on Thomas Light is sketchy, but from what I manage to get from them, he was a brilliant robotics expert, responsible for the creation of many different breakthroughs in the field of robotics."

Roll snapped her finger.

"Exactly. In January of 20XX, Doctor Thomas Xavier Light and Doctor Albert W. Wily made a breakthrough in robotics when they created one of first next generation robots—Protoman," Roll explained. "However, there was a problem with his programming—a glitch of some sort. When Doctor Light offered to repair the anomaly, Protoman received and left the lab for some time, wandering the world on his own. However, that did not stop the good doctor. The two went on to create two more robots shortly afterwards. They were made as brother and sister robots and were named Rock and Roll on their completion date. They were made as caretakers, keeping the house in order while the two scientists worked day and night to finally make six other robots. Each robot was made to represent the field of labor that they would have—how would you say this?—"governed over." The two were praised for their contribution to the world with their eight creations. However, this was not enough for Light's partner Doctor Wily. Drunk with and driven by a greediness matched only by his bad fashion sense, Wily stole the six robots and reprogrammed them to aid him in a quest to rule the world. Seeing this, the robot, Rock, decided on his own to be converted into a combat robot and set out to stop the mad doctor. Every time Wily stepped up to try another hand at world domination, Rock, who would later gain the new name, "Megaman," would be there to beat the crap out of his robot creations and eventually him."

Zero lowered and shook his head.

"Doctor Wily… Why does that name sound so familiar to me?" Zero asked.

"It should, blondie," Roll continued on to say. "He's the same insane, whacked, jerk-off, psychotic idiot with a shiny bald spot that spawned you into existence."

Zero looked up at her, a bit of surprise in his eyes.

"What?"

Roll sat back and rested on her hands, continuing her explanation.

"During the times that Megaman was out saving the world from Wily's blatant stupidity, Doctor Light continued work on a new robot, far more advanced than any of the others he had created over the years that came. This robot would be later known to you people as X. Although and advanced creation, Doctor Light was skeptical about releasing X into the world since being able to make his own decisions, all hell would have broken loose should he revolt against the good path the doctor hoped he would have chosen. Doctor Light had X sealed within in a capsule where he would sleep for thirty years while a thorough diagnostic was carried out on his internal systems. It also seemed that during this time, Zero was also being made by Doctor Wily, after he learned of X's creation." She looked up at Zero standing not too far away from her. "Knowing the psycho doctor, you were probably made to destroy the world or something."

Wayd raised his hand.

"Um, Roll?"

"Yeah? What'cha need?" she asked.

"You said that Light created a robot named "Roll", right? Why do you two have the same name?" Wayd asked.

Roll nodded then explained.

"My full name is Roll the Second, but I shortened my name to just "Roll" since it would be a bit easier on the tongue. As my name suggests, I am Roll's child."

The three in front of her cocked a brow. Roll cleared her throat at their response and then continued to explain.

"Over time while watching her father continuously work on new projects, Roll grew more and more interested in robotics and eventually became somewhat of a lab assistant to Doctor Light. While X was being created, Roll had copied a few pieces of the blueprints her father was using. Seeing that her father was always busy in the lab and he would have probably gone nuts at her idea of her own creation, she sought out the help of another noted scientist and new friend of the family, Doctor Mihail Sergevitch Cossack. Cossack granted her usage of his laboratory and helped to program and build me to be X's sister bot." She paused for a second, resting her hand between her medium-sized breasts. "I carry X's basic design, but my programming, and body type are completely of my mother's conception and eventual creation." Roll ran her finger from the top of her knee right up her leg, up and past her stomach, across one of her breasts, up her neck and stopped in front of her mouth, licking her finger. "My mother… loved human beings and admired their design. She loved them so much that she sought to make me as close to human as possible. Her ideas were genius, though tedious to create. The living tissue that my body is wrapped in is infused with an entire nanite colony," she went to say, picking up a pointed piece of steel, "capable of replicating basic human tasks. Like this, for example."

The others in the room jumped as she ran her right palm through with the piece of steel, sending a bit of crimson blood onto the lab's floor. There was a noticeable expression of pain on Roll's face as she slowly pulled it out, dropping it onto the steel table with a light clang. They stared at her hand, watching her blood leak from the wound near the center of her palm. They noticed a bit of pale blue, electrical energy running along the walls of the inside of her self-induced wound.

"Geez, Roll, what the hell are you doing to yourself?" Wayd asked.

"Don't worry about me—it'll heal," Roll said with a voice of reassurance. She hopped off the table, walking up to Zero. She looked up at him, staring into his eyes with a serious look on her face. "What? You've been staring at my body ever since we got here. Do you have something to say to me, huh, blondie?"

"You…" Zero began. "You're… not a Reploid… What are you?"

Roll smiled mischievously as she turned around and headed back towards the table she sat on.

"A hell of a lot better made than you."

Gate looked up, taking her helmet off and rested it on the table where Roll sat before, letting her blue hair fall freely to the sides.

"In any rate, Zero doesn't have all the answers you seek," Gate said to her. She turned around and faced her large computer monitor. "The only ones that can give you such information are the Elder Brains—but there is a slight problem."

Roll turned around with a look of questioning on her face.

"What? What's the problem?" Roll asked.

"The only person I know that knows the exact location of the Elder Brains is Zero's commanding officer, Signas," Gate replied, typing a few keys on her keyboard.

"Oh? So how do we get the attention of said person?" Roll asked.

"We already have it," Gate said pressing one final key. The information on the screen shifted to the right and the image of a Reploid clad in a black military coat sitting in an office chair with his right hand on the desk while the left typed away on a keyboard nearby. He had the look of a Reploid that commanded respect and a serious gaze. Roll noticed Zero's standing at attention out of the corner of her eye when Gate folded her arms, at back in the chair, and began to speak to the Reploid on the screen. "Signas."

Signas looked up and spoke with a lightly deep voice.

"Doctor Gate, it's been quite a while since I last had the pleasure of speaking with you," Signas said.

Gate chuckled.

"Not long enough for you to forget my first name, has it? You know that I'm allergic to formalities among good friends, Signas."

"Indeed you are, Alexia. It's good to see that you're still doing so well since you left us here at Headquarters. You know, your old job is still there if you feel like stretching your legs a little bit."

Gate smiled and shook her head.

"It's nice of you to put up the offer, old friend, but you know that I'm going to turn it down," Gate replied. "I'm rather enjoying my days living with the humans here on this island smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Besides, you got this guy here to take my place. He's doing a more than adequate job in my stead."

Signas looked up at Zero, taking a pen and tapping the desk with it.

"Ah, Zero—how's the arm?"

"Good as new, thanks to some star quality repair work. Even Douglas would be impressed, sir," Zero said, looking over at Wrench then back at his Commander. "Sir, I'm anxious to return to HQ. I promised someone that I'd be back a long time ago."

"Indeed. You'll be transported back soon enough. In fact, all five of you will be brought here." Signas looked up past Zero. "Alexia's told me much about the two humans standing behind you and I wish for them to meet others just like them." His eyes dropped down to the emerald-eyed one in the white bikini. "And you, young miss, I take it you have plenty of questions to which you require answers, yes?"

"That's correct."

Roll's response was blunt and devoid of any real emotion. Signas was slightly surprised at that.

"Well, you'll have your chance to ask them. In exactly one hour one of my field agents will be there to have you all prepped for transport. I suggest that you all do what you must by the time he arrives," Signas said, looking back down at Roll, "especially you, Roll. I would suggest a change of attire. Your current outfit would be a little… distracting to the males on duty here."

"Kind of how it is currently distracting you, Mister Signas?" Roll asked. "You really aught to peel your eyes off my chest—such an action is… unbecoming of a military commander. That and it also makes me—in many ways—want to cut your optics out." Roll turned around and began walking away from the screen, waving in the process. "Don't worry, Mister Signas, I won't be walking around like this in your house. The last thing I want is you blaming me for the damages that ensue thanks to some idiot walking around with a hard-on." She looked back at Doctor Gate then at Wrench. "Could the two of you come to my room after you're done talking, I need to talk to you about something."

Zero watched as she disappeared up the stairs, turning to Wayd.

"Pretty bitchy, isn't she?" Zero asked.

"Maybe," Wayd said, shrugging. He thought for a second and then looked up at Zero. "Say, can a girl robot have a period?"

Wayd flinched as a large piece of scrap metal was flung across the room from the stairs, barely missing the back of his head and hitting the ground between them and Gate.

"I heard that kid. I _can_ hurt you, boy. Don't make me come back down there and smack you some!"

Roll's voice trailed off as she went further up the stairs. Gate turned back to face Signas on the monitor.

"A robot built by a robot… She's certainly an interesting and unique girl. The complete opposite of her brother in many ways," Signas commented.

"True," Gate said. "Signas, do you think the Elder Brains will help her?"

Signas closed his eyes and shrugged.

"I have not the answer to that question," Signas replied. "What I do know is that by now they already know she'll be coming to see them. Whether or not they choose to help with the information she seeks will be entirely up to them. You of all people should know how the Elder Brains are."

"Yeah, I remember," Gate said. "I wonder if they kicked their old habits…"

"That all remains to be seen, Alexia," Signas said, changing his position in the chair. "I will go contact my field agent now. We will continue our chat when you arrive here."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Gate said, smiling. "Oh and Signas, if you're sending who I think you're sending, don't be surprised if he comes back in a garbage bag. You and I both know how he can act." The conversation ended and Gate stood up, turning around to face the three in the room. "Wrench, come with me. You two others are free to do whatever you want until the Hunter agent gets here. Just don't touch anything in this lab."

"Sure thing, doc," Wayd said as the two walked up the stairs to Roll's room.

**R**oll stood in her room, looking outside as the gathering in the town below. They were having somewhat of a feast thanks to Roll's run-in with the shark during the afternoon swim she took. She looked down at the hand that destroyed the shark's head, wondering what it was that she actually did to kill it. Returning her hand to her side, she looked over her shoulder at the sound of approaching footsteps, turning around. Wrench and Gate walked in shortly afterwards through Roll's half-open bedroom door; Wrench stopped and looked at Roll for a few seconds, then looked away her face turning beet red. Roll cocked a brow as Gate sat down at the edge of Roll's bed. Roll looked down at herself and then back up at Wrench who was staring at the old wall to her left. Roll walked over to her, flagging her hand up and down in front of the uncomfortable human's face. Wrench shifted her eyes away from Roll, trying to avoid direct eye contact with the robot.

"What? Does the sight of my naked body make you feel uncomfortable? Does my breast size spark some sort of insecurity on your part?" Roll patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Kali, with clean living and three wholesome meals a day, you too can be endowed like me." Roll walked over to a chair near by the window and sat in it, tossing one leg over the other. "On to the reason, why I called you both here." She turned to Gate. "Ever since you broke the limiter seal on my combat abilities, something strange has been going on up here," she explained, pointing to her head.

"What? Has something gone wrong with your systems?" Gate asked.

Roll shook her head.

"No. It's like this," Roll explained. "When you were unlocking the seal, data was replaced—overwritten with new data that was fed from the program my mother provided. Sometime after my fight with blondie, new date wrote itself into my central command systems. Try as I might, I cannot access to these programs, but a systems diagnostic says that they belong there and they pose no threat to me at all. In fact, I believe that they are to add to my abilities or something like that."

Wrench sat next to Gate.

"What makes you think that?" she asked.

"When I wrestled with that shark down at the beach something happened when I tried to stop it from having me for lunch. When I reached out to stop its jaws from clamping down on my ass, one of said programs kicked in on its own for a few seconds when I touched it. The next thing I know there was a flash of light, an explosion, and ultimately a shark, dead in the water. What do you think, Gate?"

Gate thought for a second.

"Well, first off, the Great White shark is not indigenous to these waters. You usually find those halfway around the world. I seriously doubt that it got lost and swam this far just to eat you, Roll. As for the alien programs you speak of, I will run a scan later before the field agent arrives here. Knowing the one he's going to send, we have more than an hour."

"Thanks again, doc. And Wrench, I think you should head back to the town before they eat it all."

"Ah, damn, I for got about that. Later you two—" Wrench's voice trailed off as she darted out through Roll's door, heading downstairs to get her brother and leave.

Gate stood up and headed in the same direction.

"Why don't you freshen up, Roll? I'll go get the system ready. It may take some time, though."

"That's okay. I think I'll go sit on the roof when I'm done," Roll said, standing up.

"I'll send one of the Mets to get you when I'm ready. Have fun until then."

**T**he wind blew through her long hair as she sat on top of the building's roof in her usual outfit, minus the jacket, looking out at the surroundings. The air was cooling down as it was slowly reaching evening. Soon the temperature would go from the morning's hot to the evening's frigid cold—the time when the locals would retreat to the warmth of their beds—and in many cases among couples—the warmth of each other's bodies. Some of them that noticed her position on to of Gate's building threw a smile and a wave her way. She'd return the smile and the wave, watching as they made good use of the shark Roll had accidentally retired by way of a public barbecue and public picnic. She could see the Cossack siblings among them, laughing at Wayd almost tripping over a tree root and spilling the contents of his plate on the ground near the town square. She could see various Mets of different sizes helping out in any way they could, some of them flying around above the human gathering. The urge to join them not too far away in their little get-together was a bit compelling, but so was the urge to stay away from them, knowing that as similar as they were in design and appearance, they were worlds apart.

The temperature in the air around her dropped dramatically and she turned around to see Deene standing on the other side of the roof, facing in the direction of the human gathering. Her hood was covering her head this time, letting only her veil of hair and the bottom half of her face remain visible to sight. Her cloak moved in ripples as the wind moved over it, with the light showing off a hint of silver in the fabric. Roll stood up with one hand slowly inching towards one of her bladed weapons. A smile appeared on Deene's face as Roll's fingers wrapped around the hilt of the weapon, locking there in a tight grip.

"Oh my. It looks like you are seeking to lacerate my body with your weapons," Deene said, not changing her facing.

"I'm not going to have to unless your reason for being here are… ill-minded," Roll said to her.

Deene smiled again, more noticeably this time.

"Far from, young one, far from." Deene raised her head and walked in Roll's direction; Roll moved away from her, keeping her distance while Deene stopped at the place where Roll was seated a few seconds ago, looking at the feasting group. "Intriguing are they not? Human beings are certainly fun to observe. They are quite the masters of adaptation, given the right conditions and situations. A lot can be learned from their species should one take the time out to actually study them. The only problem is that most of the humans I've had the chance to observe either die or kill each other before my analysis of them was complete." Deene turned around to face Roll who stood about fifteen feet away from her. "Thanks to their genetic tampering and foolishly needless nuclear wars, most human genes have grown weaker and weaker with every generation born into this world, passing from cradle to grave in the blink of an eye. Those who don't die off naturally are killed by their own or by crazed Mavericks who have had their cores violated and infected by the virus." She turned back around to face the group. "It's somewhat of a heartless world in many cases. Wouldn't you agree, Roll?"

Roll didn't answer. She stood her ground with her hand on her weapon, watching the white one closely. Deene looked over her shoulder at Roll and then got down on one knee, resting her right hand on her raised one while looking beyond the humans at the horizon where the sun would soon be setting.

"Forgive me. I apologize. I'm inquiring too much of you. I shouldn't expect a newborn to know about a world it has barely been in," Deene went to say, getting up and turning around to face her. "But worry not—you will know about the world soon enough. And I gather that you will learn many things about the world and its inhabitants, Roll."

Roll narrowed her eyes.

"How is it that you know my name? I don't know you," Roll said, standing up straight.

"I have a great deal of knowledge about this world, little Roll," Deene said to her. "Knowing your name is just one of the many parts of that knowledge available to me."

"And what are you doing here?"

Deene walked over to another part of the roof, pulling her hood off and tossing her hair fully out of her cloak completely. It hit the hood of the cloak and bounced once before falling into place completely.

"I'm observing—same as you," Deene replied, looking at Roll's hand's position. She turned around and smiled, looking up at her face. "But it seems you think I'm here for a more… elaborate reason."

"I'm just taking precautions, that's all. My mother told me to be careful of strangers," Roll said. "That and you just freak me out. There is something seriously wrong with you…"

Deene chuckled, walking over to the center of the roof, near to where Roll stood.

"Most people seem to think so," Deene said, looking over her shoulder at the roof access door. "Wouldn't you agree, Zero?"

Roll shifted her eyes to see Zero walking out onto the roof with his saber in his right hand, with a serious look on his face. He held it up, pointing it at Deene.

"Deene… I am hereby going to bring you back Hunter Headquarters in connection with various Maverick-related incidents. If you do not wish to cooperate with me and I know you won't, you can always be sliced into pieces and be carried back to HQ in a trash bag"

Deene shook her head with a calm smile, moving a few strands of her hair behind her ears.

"A fight? Oh goody. But as much as I'd like to stay and engage in mortal combat with you, I have to be elsewhere." She turned around to face Roll; a friendly smile appeared on her face as the winds blew across the area again. "I'll be meeting up with you again sometime, Roll. And I hope the humans like their shark dinner. I picked that one out myself."

Zero stepped forward and Deene faded away into the winds with a smile, leaving behind a light, but cold breeze that would have chilled any normal person to the bone. Zero stood staring with eyes filled with both frustration and disappointment, stopping as the last remnants of Deene's body disappeared from the rooftops, leaving only them facing each other. An angry grunt escaped the Hunter's lips as he sheathed his saber, walking out in front of Roll.

"Why did you just let her get away like that?" he asked, obviously angry.

"Last time I checked, blondie, _you_ were the Maverick Hunter and Deene was _your_ problem, not mine," Roll replied, walking around Zero and heading to the door leading back down into the lab. "Go chase after her, boy. That _is_ what you're good at, right?"

From a vantage point beyond the sight of everyone else, Deene stood at the very top of a tree with a smirk on her face, watching as Zero followed Roll shortly afterwards. Bringing her left hand up to her face, she pulled back the glove she was wearing to reveal a digital watch. She looked at the time and her smirk changed to a full-fledged smile and she looked back at Gate's building with her hands returning to the inside of her cloak.

_Ah… Soon. Just you wait, darling._

**R**oll let out a long exhale as she opened her eyes, sitting up and looking over at Gate who sat typing away on her computer. Zero stood on the other end of the room with her arms folded and his head slightly down. He was apparently brooding over not being able to capture Deene; Roll let out a chuckle as she turned around, getting off the table she lay on with the wires still connected to various parts of her body.

"So, what's the verdict, doc?" Roll asked.

Gate stopped typing and turned the hovering chair around, facing her.

"Well, there's good news and there's bad news. I'm going to give you the bad news first," Gate explained. "The bad news is that even I cannot seem to access the programs you spoke of due to an encryption that's alien to me. The good news is that I found another program within those that I did get some degree of access too."

"So, what's it do?" Roll inquired, genuinely curious.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know—but the encryption on this one is different from the others. I cannot decipher it either, but it seems to be breaking down every few seconds when the data is refreshed. Soon the cycling will be over and the encryption will have recycled itself down to nothing, leaving the program to run by itself."

Roll sighed, pulling the cables from the back of her neck with a light grunt, a bit of her blood hitting the table behind her.

"Great… For all I know I could have a damn bomb in my head just waiting to go off and there's nothing I can…" Roll's eyes shifted to the right at the lab's main door. "Are we expecting someone around now?"

Gate looked at the time on the large digital clock above her head.

"Yes. Signas' agent should be here by now."

The three in the lab turned around as the doors to the lab opened and a male Reploid with a young appearance came through them. He was designed in a similar way to Gate and wore a lab coat—fully buttoned—with the insignia of the Maverick Hunters on the front pocket with a pair of laser pens sticking out. There was a holographic clipboard in his right hand and his left was in his pocket. He wore a red helmet to match his red armor underneath with a blue star shape in the center above his forehead and the light blue visor that covered his eyes. Roll glanced at him through the corner of her eyes then continued to mind her business, extracting the final wires from her skin. He stopped and threw a salute Zero's way before moving over to where Gate sat, stopping and saluting her as well. Gate shook her head.

"I'm not a member of your ranks anymore—please don't do that," Gate said to him.

He returned his hand to his side.

"Ah, terribly sorry, Doctor Gate. Force of habit." His eyes shifted over to Roll who was ignoring him completely, pulling a wire from her right wrist. "So this is Roll…" His eyes scanned her up and down before noticing what she was doing. He stepped forward, pulling his hand out of his pocket. "Say, can I help you with—" Roll's eyes shifted to his position as she slammed her left foot on his right, quickly drawing on her blades with her left hand and resting it in front of his neck. "What the hell?"

"Oh, spare me, please! What made you think that this pisspoor disguise would work? It can't even mask your underlying stupidity!" Roll said to him without even looking around.

"Disguise? What are you—?" he tried to ask before he was cut off by the blade being moved closer to his neck.

"This body that I'm seeing here seems to be in perfect condition, yet your movement was off from the time you walked through that door. Your right knee joint is apparently in need of a little work and from the sound of it, damage like that would at least be visible somewhat," Roll replied. "You should really ditch the borrowed duds, before that knee becomes the least of your bodily harm."

Gate stood up, clapping.

"Bravo, Roll. I didn't think you'd catch onto his façade so easily. Let him go, the fun's over now," Gate said to her.

Roll pulled her blade back and slid it back into its place at the back of her waist, stepping off the agent's foot.

"Humph… He would've been better disguised as a wounded, dying chicken."

Zero closed his eyes and folded his arms, letting his body fall back onto the nearby wall with a low laugh.

"You've been found out. You can stop with the disguise now, Axl."

The agent looked at Roll first before he was engulfed in green light and holographic images of lines of encrypted code. They swirled around him for a few seconds before his real body was revealed to the onlookers. He stood at around the same height as Roll with a thin body wrapped in black armor and an oddly-shaped matching black helmet. He had a lighter shade of green in his eyes than Roll and an X-shaped scar across the center of his face between his eyes and above his nose. In his hands he held onto a pair of matching black guns which he spun around in either forefinger. His appearance made him appear younger than Roll with his spiky brown hair sticking out of the base of his helmet at the back. As Roll had said, his right knee had incurred a bit of visible damage, limiting his ability to stand properly. He shook his head, sighing.

"Damn! I didn't think I'd be found out so easily," Axl said, looking over at Roll. "She's good."

Gate and Zero walked up to him as Roll headed towards the stairs leading back to the roof.

"Forget it, Axl," Zero said, sighing. "She's beyond the league of someone like you."

"What?" Axl asked, looking at them both. "What did I do?"

"That look in your eyes, kid," Gate said to him, getting down on one knee to eyeball his damaged knee, "don't think I haven't seen it before. You like Roll, don't you?"

"Well she is really cute. I bet Zero would be trying his hand at her if Iris weren't around," Axl replied, watching Roll disappear up the stairs. "Think I should go talk to her? You know, since we got off on the wrong foot and all."

Gate shook her head.

"You're not going anywhere on this knee," she said, looking up at Zero. "Go see if you can pry Wrench away from her food for me, Zero. I think she should be able to fix this in a jiffy." Zero nodded and headed out of the lab while Gate stood up, heading back to her chair. "Also, I would suggest you calm your hyperactive self around her, Axl. I don't know if you've realized it yet, but she doesn't seem to like you at all."

"Blah," Axl said to Gate as she sat down. "She's just playing hard to get, that's all. I can tell that she's just dying to get to know me."

Gate laughed then began typing again.

"(What an odd pairing it would be. Roll's not even your species, kid.)"

"What did you say? I didn't quite hear you just now, doc," Axl asked.

"Not a thing, kiddo," Gate replied. "Now, take a seat over there. The local grease monkey will be here to fix you up before transport."


	5. Phase Four: Elder Brains

Phase Four: **Elder Brains**

**T**he inside of the lab was mostly still and cold that evening. There was minimal movement inside, save Wrench as she bit down on a meatless shark bone, carefully fixing the moderate damage to Axl's knee. Doctor Gate was distanced from the rest of them, staring at a large piece of equipment as she randomly glanced across at a holographic clipboard she held in her gloved left hand. She'd lick her finger and run it down the length of the page until she found the line of code she wanted, reading it quickly and double-checking, just to make sure. She rested the clipboard down on the desk next to her and adjusted a few of the machinery's settings, letting out a sigh in the process. A large, pink bubble swelled in front of Wayd's lips, growing to a considerable size before it exploded with a light pop. He sucked it back in and began working his jaws again, tapping his finger in rhythm as he read some articles on Reploid advancement technology. Zero was still in a corner of the room against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed, thinking about various things, including Deene. Roll lay on a table in a corner of the room with her arms folded behind her head and one leg tossed over the other. Her eyes stared at the pair of small moths flying around in a circle underneath one of the lab's lights.

For the entire duration of the procedure, Roll could feel Axl's eyes lustfully probe the entire length of her body from toe-tip to the tip of her longest strand of hair. He would always avoid eye contact with her and look away when she shifted her annoyed, emerald eyes his way, pretending to be focused on the job that Wrench was doing. Roll eventually sat up, casting her eyes to another part of the room where a clean suit of clothes sat, folded neatly at the edge of a table. Wrench had told her that they were something she had been working on for a while and only just completed. It was a short red frock with a pair of long, black sleeves with white cuffs. From the looks of how it was made, Roll know it was made to replicate the one her mother was wearing in the holographic projection Roll saw in the capsule. It had a matching pair of red boots with a black zipper running up the middle of them and black soles. A pair of black stockings rested next to the frock also, completing the ensemble. Axl continued to stare as Roll got off the table, dusting her clothes off before walking over to where the clothes sat. Taking them up, Roll altered her direction and headed to the stairs leading to the above floor where her room was. Gate waited until she was out of sight and walked over to where Axl sat, raising her hand and smacking him across the head with it while sighing. He asked what it was for. Gate ignored him and went back to her work.

Roll transferred the clothes to her left hand as she neared her room's door. It slid open to the right as she approached; she stepped in and rested the new clothes on the bed next to her. With that done, she took her jacket off and rested in on the back of a chair, removing her blades and stepping out of her skirt, boots and shirt seconds later. She turned around and faced one of her bedroom windows, unzipping her form-fitting, black suit. She sat at the edge of the bed and pulled it off her legs, tossing it in the chair with the rest of her clothes. Now naked, save the ribbons in her hair, Roll walked over to a nearby drawer, pulled it open, and stuck her hand inside. She pulled out a pair of panties—black in color and soft in texture—and tossed them over to the bed where her new clothes lay. She returned to the bed, pulling the ribbons from her hair and resting them on the chair on top of her jacket. She pulled her panties on first, reaching for the frock itself afterwards and pulling the black zipper located at the front of it downwards before pulling it over her head.

She stood up, walking up to a mirror that was mounted on the wall nearby, pulling the zipper upwards from just below her stomach. It fit her like a glove, right down to the length of the black sleeves. The frock itself was made of a light, material and ended somewhere below her mid thigh. The stockings were next; she leaned back a little bit and pulled the left one up first, snapping it on her lower thigh. She did the same with the right, taking her new boots up and slipping her feet into them. She rested her feet on the ground and pulled the zippers up, moving her feet around on the inside a few times. She smiled and stood up. Perfect fit. She walked to the mirror, taking one of the ribbons off the chair and tying it into her hair to make it into a long, golden ponytail. Her arms fell slowly to the side after she tightened the emerald bow in her hair and her eyes began to slowly grow. She looked like an older version of her mother in the mirror's reflection. Looking at the boots again, she realized that there were a pair of sheaths for her blades on their outsides. It seemed like Wrench had planned for everything when she was making the ensemble Roll now wore. Roll headed back to the chair, taking the blades from their sheaths and getting down on one knee, sliding them into the sheaths on either side of her boots.

A bag hung from the handle of one of her drawers; she reached over to it and tossed it on the ground next to the chair. It hit the ground and slid for a few inches, hitting the side of the chair and coming to a complete stop. She picked her clothes up off the chair and folded them quickly, packing them neatly into the bag. She dusted her hands off afterwards and looked out at the sun setting on the sea. The evening winds began to circulate throughout her bedroom through her half-open bedroom window as she turned her attention towards it, walking outside and looking out at the village to see many of the human inhabitants returning to their homes. Smiling, she pulled the window shut, her right ear picking up the sound of someone walking down the hallway in her direction. There was a knock on her bedroom door and she walked up to it, causing it to slide open for her to look upon the one standing there in the doorway.

It was Axl, throwing his "I want to throw you on the floor and just eat you up!" smile at her.

Roll was not pleased.

He continued to scan her body up and down despite the malevolent look on her mug, noticing her change of attire. Roll's anger slowly began to be added to with every second Axl's eyes lingered on her breasts. The fact that she wore no bra underneath her clothing made his eyes linger longer and grow wider. Finally tired of his lustful staring, Roll knocked him off his feet by swinging her right foot around his left leg and clipping it behind the knee. He hit the ground with a loud thud, feeling her boot-clad right foot rest painfully on his chest. He looked up to see her looking down at him with an angry look in her face. His eyes dropped lower and a lightly entranced grin appeared on his face. She added more pressure to her right foot and his grin was swallowed by a look of slight pain.

"What are you smiling at?" Roll asked, quite annoyed.

Axl pointed upwards.

"Um, uh, I can see right up your dress… Nice panties," Axl replied.

Axl prayed for her to stop kicking him afterwards.

**T**he doors slid open as she walked up to them, feeling the cool evening winds blow across her face and through her blonde hair. She walked over to the balcony, looking out at the large city from her high-altitude vantage point. The sun was just about ready to disappear behind the tallest buildings as she rested on the balcony, letting out a sigh. This balcony, hundreds of feet above the ground was, Alia's place to go when she had free time. It was her place to just be alone and think. She stood bent over with her elbows resting on the steel railing, her head resting in both her palms. She sighed out loud; her face curled into a shape that showed her depression. Her eyes followed the path of a flock of large gulls, heading over the city in the direction of their home on the cliffs near the coastline. The Maverick Hunter headquarters was built on a cliff, high above the ocean waters. From where she stood, she could hear the waves crashing on the side of the cliff and the calls of the gulls that nested there. The city was somewhat quiet even though the Reploid citizens that resided therein were still working and going about business as usual. She could see them from where she stood. Like ants they moved slowly through the streets of the city, walking and talking while trying to balance their daily tasks.

The sky was cloudless as the setting sun's light slowly disappeared and moon took over dominance of the sky. Night came slowly afterwards and the city was completely blanketed in the bright lights generated from the city buildings. It was beautiful, the city at night; Alia loved to stare out at it for long periods of time. This had become her favorite spot since the time she had met X there and talked to him for the first time. She would always come back there and meet him after every mission, talking about various things. It was once a place where happiness reigned, now it served only as a place for her to disappear to and reminisce of days past and time spent with the one that stole her heart. Alia's solitude was shattered by the sound of the doors behind her sliding open and someone walking out onto the balcony behind her. It was Iris, and she stretched as she walked over to the railing on the other side of the balcony itself. Iris stopped stretching and an energetic, cheerful smile appeared on her face as she twirled her body around and faced the one that was backing her. Alia didn't turn around and acknowledge her presence. In fact, Alia wanted her gone more than anything else. Iris turned around and rested up against the railing, letting the wind blow through her long brown hair.

"Nice evening, don't you think so, Alia?" Iris asked, looking out as the lights in the city were switched on to greet the night.

Alia grunted in response. As much as she saw Iris as a friend, this was one time that she really wanted her gone. Iris ignored her malevolent response and walked up next to her, leaning back on the railings.

"I figured I'd find you up here," Iris continued. "Signas was looking for you. It seems we're going to be having some visitors here at H.Q."

"I heard about it. I'll go when I'm good and ready," Alia replied, not turning around to face her. Her eyes shifted over to Iris' position after a short while to see her standing there, leaning over with her hands behind her back and a large smile on her face as she stared at Alia's glum expression. Alia's right eyebrow rose and she sighed. "What?" Alia's expression changed to surprise as Iris quickly poked Alia in the left of her chest with her gloved right forefinger, a large smile appearing on her face. "W-What are you—?"

"I know your heart hurts because of X, Alia, but you should really just let it go already," Iris explained. "No one has seen X since the war ten years ago. I'm not saying for sure that he's dead—I don't know if he is. But you have to accept the fact that he's not here and quit letting it drag you down like this. Your colleagues are really starting to talk about you moping around the headquarters with your head hung from a rope like some handed zombie."

Alia looked away at the city rooftops, shaking her head.

"You... don't know how hard I've been trying to, Iris—it's harder than you think it is… To let go just like that," Alia replied. She looked out at the horizon to see a small black shape approaching moving across the sky and heading in their direction. "Oh great…"

Iris looked out and a large smile appeared on her face at the familiar shape heading towards the headquarters, resting her arms akimbo.

"Ah, so they finally got back," Iris said. "It's about time."

The Reploids walking in the city streets looked up as the black shape sped across the city's lit rooftops. It was a large group of smaller Reploids designed to look like insects, flying across the city with three larger Reploids flying in front. The largest of the three flew in the middle, leading the group with its hands resting on its thighs. Its body was thin, save its large, black abdomen stripped in red. The rest of its body was also black in color, with various parts of its thin arms and legs colored in with a dark red color. Its semi-transparent wings beat at an extremely high speed as it led the group across the city rooftops and towards the large building ahead, gaining altitude as it did. Its pair of antennae stuck out to either side above a pair of large and black compound eyes. Below the larger pair of eyes lay another pair of smaller, human sized, dark crimson eyes with no visible retina. Its pair of ruby lips curled into a smile as it looked up at the high balcony on the side of building, noticing the pair of female officers standing there. From its position not too far from the building, it noticed that Iris was flagging them down from the balcony, waving both her arms in the air. Iris stopped her waving and put both her hands on either side of her mouth to amplify her voice somewhat.

"Hey! Do a barrel roll!" she shouted, laughing afterwards.

The larger leader of the flying group smiled and chuckled, stretching both its arms out to the sides. The rest in the group followed suit as they all rolled to their left sides, heading downwards before flying upwards again, catching the attention of the Reploids behind the windows in the Headquarters buildings. They headed upwards until their leader slowed down and came to a slow ascent to the balcony where the two stood, folding its arms in the process. It hovered above the railing, raising its right hand and waving at Iris who stood there with a large grin on her face. Alia looked away as the swarm's leader turned around and pointed upwards, signaling for the smallest of the group to leave the area and leave just the two larger ones. They resembled a smaller version of their leader, both of them hovering up and down with their hands at their sides. The leader landed on then sat on the railing, throwing one leg over the other as its wings came to an immediate stop. Iris stepped forward, resting folded fists akimbo as she cocked her right brow.

"I was wondering when you three would come back," Iris said. "Good to finally have you back, girl."

The insect Reploid replied in a female, German accent, hopping off the balcony to the ground where it stood taller than both of the girls there, causing Iris to look up at her.

"Iris, mein Freund! It's good to be back," the tall Reploid said after a short stretch.

"I thought you'd never come back, Knall. What took you so long?" Iris inquired.

Knall shrugged as the two hovered over to her and sat on her shoulders.

"I was just supposed to oversee a weapons test in Sector 7. It was boring until a few rogue Mavericks showed up and decided to wreak a little havoc," Knall replied and sighed, rubbing the heads of the pair on her shoulders. "Just a few Class 2s—nothing to write home about," she continued with a boring sigh afterwards. "All in all, it was a tad boring." Knall turned around to face Alia. Alia avoided eye contact with her. Knall sighed, shaking her head. "Still moping around like your reason for being operational has lost all meaning, Alia?"

Alia turned around, an angry expression on her face.

"Mind your own business, Knall," Alia snapped. "What I do is no concern of yours anymore."

Knall closed her red eyes and shook her head.

"How long are you going to keep singing that old song? Sooner or later you will realize that the more people you constantly push away with this nonsense, the less people will give a damn you later when all is said and done," Knall said, turning away. "So, Iris, Signas has informed me that we will be having some guests over. He didn't have time to tell me much, though, so I don't really know the details."

"Well, I am as weakly-informed as you are, but I think all will be revealed once we head to the transport building and meet Signas there," Iris replied. "What I _do_ know is that one of the visitors is—how do I say this?—unique. Very unique."

"Herrlich—I guess we shouldn't keep our good commander waiting." Knall's antennae began to twitch slightly as she looked at the one sitting on her shoulder. "Eine, would you be so kind as to carry our young tactical advisor to the transport building?"

Eine, the one sitting on her right shoulder, nodded and hopped off, replying with the voice of a teenage German girl.

"Ja, no problem," Eine replied, flying over behind Iris and picking her up off the balcony by the waist.

Even though Eine was about hip-height to Iris, she managed to lift the young brunette with relative ease, maintaining a hover in the process. Without turning around, Knall spread her wings out to either side, posing a question to Alia.

"Do you wish for Zwei to carry you, Alia?" she asked with a serious tone in her voice.

Alia turned around and headed to the door.

"No thanks. I'll walk," she replied quite quickly before she disappeared through the automatic doors.

"Suit yourself, mein Freund." Knall turned back to Eine and Iris as Zwei hopped off her shoulder. "Shall we go then?"

Eine and Zwei followed their mother as she jumped off the balcony, freefalling for a few feet before actually beginning to fly. A few of the Reploid workers in the building threw them a wave as they flew by close to the windows. The transport building was located on the ground level and to the rear of the main building. During the flight, Iris looked over at Knall who flew next to her with her arms and legs completely parallel to each other. Zwei flew next to her, flying the exact same way, right down to the speed of his beating wings and the slight movements of the body. The three were completely synchronized with each other in such a way that one would be led to think that they could read each other's thoughts and react in the a way that would perfectly mirror each other. Knall made a sudden shift of direction to the right as they neared the ground level, passing above a pair of large guard robots that paced behind the regular guard Reploids. The building was just up ahead; Knall stopped flying and let herself fall from the sky, landing on a pathway behind a pair of female Reploids that were standing there gossiping amongst each other. They jumped as Knall hit the ground behind them then proceeded to quickly lean over and wrap her arms around both of their shoulders, poking her head between them with an evil smile on her face.

"Do I detect gossiping and slacking here?" Knall asked.

They both shook their heads quickly—almost violently.

"N-No, ma'am! N-No slacking here!" they both replied in unison, standing at attention.

Knall let them go, laughing and patting them both on the back.

"Nein! Nein! Don't get so scared, mein Freunde. I'm not going to report you or anything, but it might be wise to slack somewhere where the commander doesn't have eyes, like inside the main building," she said, nudging them towards the building behind her.

They turned around and saluted, heading back towards the main building of the headquarters as Eine set Iris down behind the tall, black insect.

"Oh, that was just horrible of you, Knall! Letting them off the hook like that!" Iris commented.

"Everyone needs a break now and then, Iris. Now let us head inside. Our commander awaits," the German replied, looking at her twin children. "Eine, Zwei, I want you two to return to the Hive and put the rest of the swarm to bed. They deserve some rest after all this." She looked over at Zwei who had a sick expression on his face as he hovered up and down beside her. "Zwei, mein Sohn, you've been sick since we left Sector 7. I told you not to play around in that reactor, but you didn't listen to me, did you? I want you to stay home and sleep until I can have the doctor run a scan on your systems." She turned to Eine. "Eine, please make sure that he's put to bed for me, please."

"I will," Eine said, taking her brother's hand. "You heard our mother, let's go home."

Zwei groaned as his sister dragged him off into the skies, heading in the direction the swarm took when Knall sent them along. Knall sighed as she looked over at Iris who stood there, chuckling. A smile appeared on Knall's red lips as she looked down at her brunette friend's visage with her reflective pair of crimson eyes. The pair of masked Reploid guards standing on either sides of the door saluted the two as they approached, opening the doors to allow them unabated entry. Knall's tall stature caught the attention of all as she walked inside with light steps, her antennae vibrating slightly. The hallways they walked down were full of Reploids wearing white coats and carrying see-thru clipboards. They would throw a respectful nod their way as they walked by. At the end of the hallway, standing next to a door with a pair of guards was their commanding officer, Signas, standing with his hands behind his back as usual. He cleared his throat as they walked up to him, stopping and saluting. He returned the respectful gesture, cocking a brow slightly.

"Good to see you two finally got here—we're about to get started," Signas said. "Where is Alia? Was she not supposed to come with you?"

Knall shook her head.

"She's probably out in the building somewhere, sulking her life away, as usual," Knall replied. "She'll be around or later. Seriously, Kommandant, you really have to have a talk with her before she goes Maverick or something."

"I'll try," Signas said, turning around. "I guess this can't be helped. Let's head on inside."

"You know, I thought she would listen to you of all people, Knall," Iris said, looking up at the insect. "It _was_ you that practically raised her, and all."

Knall shrugged, curling her lips up.

"Apparently not well enough…" Knall retorted after a long sigh. "So, Kommandant, what can you tell me about out 'visitors' this evening?"

"Apart from two of our own, Axl and Zero, we'll be joined by a former Hunter and old 'friend of the family'. I'm sure you remember the name Alexia Gate."

Knall thought for a second then snapped her fingers.

"Ah, yes, I remember her. I was wondering whether or not she was still operational."

"Indeed," Signas continued. "She'll be accompanied by three others. Two of them are humans—and yes, I already know how many eyebrows are going to be raised in their direction. But the good doctor trusts them as if they were her own family and insists on their coming with her. I'm leaving them in your care, Iris."

"Yes, sir, I'll do my best to be a good host," Iris said, quite cheerfully.

"I trust your judgment, Iris." His expression changed. "The last on the list will be under your wings for her stay here, Knall. She is by far the most… unique of the guests we will be having here. I'm placing her under your care since the real reason she's here is to see the Brains and you are our only real link to them."

"She's coming to see the twins, huh?" Knall scratched her nose. "Any particular idea why? They don't let just anyone see them, you know."

"I know, but as for her reason for wanting to see them goes, I shall let her appearance speak for itself," Signas replied. "We're here."

They walked through a pair of large doors and into a circular room with no windows where Reploids sat on either side in front of computer terminals. They all stood up, saluting their commanding officer. There was a large glowing circle in the center of the room with the insignia of the Maverick Hunters in the middle of it.

"Is everything ready on both sides?" Signas asked.

"Yes, sir. We are ready to initialize transfer on your command, commander."

"Commence transfer."

The room went completely dark save for the light coming from the circle in the room's center as the transfer process began. Lines upon lines of holographic code began to appear on the inside of the circle, constantly changing as Iris looked over her shoulder at the doors behind her opening and Alia entering. She threw a little wave at her before turning back around. Alia walked up to the three and stopped next to Knall, witnessing the transfer in process. She found herself slowly looking up at the face of the tall insect next to her. Knall completely ignored her presence, keeping her eyes firmly planted on the reason why she was there. Iris looked over with a bit of concern as shame swelled up on Alia's face as she looked away from Knall and the transfer circle with her head held low. After a short while, the lines of holographic code disappeared and the six began to materialize in the circle. The lights in the room came back on as the transfer stopped and Signas walked up to them, met half-way by Zero and Axl. After a routine exchange of salutes, Zero headed over to Iris' side and Axl walked up to one of the Reploids that oversaw the transfer process. Gate straightened her glasses and walked up to the Hunters' commander with her hands buried in her lab coat's pockets. While they were exchanging small talk, Roll looked over at the human siblings and noticed that something was completely wrong with them. They stumbled around for a bit as she approached them, their cheeks swelling up before they fell to their knees, vomiting all over the floor in front of them before they collapsed to the floor unconscious.

"They're fine Roll," Gate said to her as she knelt down next to the pair of humans.

"What's wrong with them?" Roll asked.

"It is a natural reaction that most humans have when their organic bodies are dematerialized and then rematerialized somewhere else during the transfer process. In most cases like what you see here, the muscles in the stomach begin to tighten like a vice, forcing all of its contents outwards and causing the unfortunate soul to vomit like this. The brain struggles to regain balance in the body's functions quickly afterwards. So quickly that it is too much for the brain itself, causing it to instantly shut down most of the body's functions—save the bare necessities like breathing—in order to repair itself. They're basically in a sleeping state until the body rebalances itself," Gate explained. "I already told Signas to have a medical team standby just in case this happened. They should be on their way here to take them to the infirmary. All they need to do is rest there for a while and they'll be as right as rain."

"Oh… I see," Roll said, her eyes shifting over to Iris as she walked over to her, stopping and smiling all over her face. Roll cocked a brow in response. "And you are?"

"My name is Iris and I'm the Hunters' head tactical advisor and the girlfriend of the guy whose arm you ripped off in a fight," Iris replied, still smiling.

_She says the last part so calmly like it's something to be truly proud of…_ Roll thought, folding her arms. "So the pansy has an other half, huh? A little word of advice, girl. Get yourself a manlier man."

Iris began giggling.

"You're funny! I like you," Iris said, looking out at the pair of floating medical robots entering the room. She flagged them down before turning back to Roll. "In any case, I'll be in charge of the humans during your stay, so you won't have to worry about them. I hope you find out what you came to find out." Iris stuck her face directly in front of Roll's, looking her up and down. "You're no Reploid… but I like you just the same." Roll looked on as the floating robots gently took the two off the ground and headed back the way they came. "If you have the urge to see them, feel free to have someone show you the way to the third medical level. I hope we can get together and talk again."

Iris followed the medical robots out of the room shortly afterwards as Signas walked up to Roll, extending his hand in a welcoming gesture.

"Well, Roll, allow me to fully welcome you here to Maverick Hunter Headquarters."

She accepted, shaking his hand.

"You're staring at my breasts again. I am going to kill you unless you stop."

Signas raised his eyesight and cleared his throat.

"You really must forgive the Kommandant for his behavior. Believe me, he doesn't know what he's doing sometimes," Knall said, walking over to Roll. Roll's emerald eyes scanned Knall's slender body thoroughly as she stood in front of her with her hands behind her back and her antennae pointing forwards. "Allow me to personally introduce myself. I am Captain Knall "Queenie" Hornisse—Maverick Hunter and leader of the Airborne Hunters Division. I will be your guide of sorts during your stay here and the one who will ultimately lead you to the ones whom you seek information from. If there is anything you need, just ask me. Any questions?"

"Just one: Why the hell is your butt so large?" Roll asked, surprising both Signas and Gate that stood nearby.

"Hah! Lustig, mien Freund!" Knall laughed for a short while then began to explain. "There's really not much to say in answering except this: I'm an insect Reploid design modeled after a queen hornet—I'm supposed to have a relatively large ass."

"Well… that answers that…" Roll looked over at Gate. "Doc, can you check the status of that thing in my brain before I do anything else? I want to make sure I don't just blow up or something."

"Sure, I don't mind. I'm quite curious as well." Gate's eyes shifted back up to Signas' face.

"You don't have to ask my permission, Alexia," Signas said with a smile. "The robotics labs were yours before I took this job, so just go ahead and use whatever equipment you wish."

"Alrighty then," Gate said, walking around the tall Hunter commander. "Roll, Knall, come with me. We'll meet up and catch up on times later, Signas. Don't worry; I'll know where to find you." Gate stopped and spoke again without looking over her shoulder. "Hey, Signas, does my old lab partner still work here?"

Signas folded his arms and nodded.

"Yes—she's the one looking after the human children right now," Signas replied. "I trust you know where to find her."

**T**he room was quiet except for the occasionally beeps and chirps coming from the computers nearby. Roll sat at the edge of a cushioned table, knocking the heels of her boots together and humming as Gate sat down in front of a computer and began typing away. Roll could hear the whispering and gossiping coming from the hallway outside concerning her and a long sigh escaped her lips. She let her body fall back onto the softness behind her and stretched both of her arms out to the side. She could hear her blood flowing through her body as her eyes slowly began to close. Knall had left earlier to fetch the good doctor's lab assistant and the wait was doing nothing but adding to her growing boredom. Gate looked over at her as Roll was about to let herself slip away into slumber when the door slid open and the talking outside ceased. Roll didn't bother to get up and instead looked backwards in her current position, viewing the two that entered upside down. The Reploid that entered the room with Knall was wearing a lab coat that was unbuttoned from the waist down, showing off her stocking-covered slender legs and short, tight white skirt. Her pair of blue boots made almost no sound at all as she walked through the room, carrying a small box in her hands. She wore a helmet much like Gate's, except it had a red cross in the center of it above the eyes. She had a clear visor over her eyes that gave her eyes the appearance of being a pink color. She rested the box down on a nearby clear table and tugged on the wrist of her right, light pink glove. She nodded in Gate's direction then walked over to Roll, looking down at her with a completely blank facial expression. Roll stared back, cocking a brow. The new doctor turned around and faced Gate, speaking with a voice devoid of emotion.

"It is an honor to meet a creation as well-built as you, young newborn." She turned around and tapped the side of her helmet, causing the visor to slide to the right and reveal her pair of yellow eyes. She rested her hand on her chest area before continuing to speak. "I am called Medi—what is your name?"

Roll pointed to her face.

"Roll."

"Well, Roll, take your frock and your boots off please. I want to examine your body." Medi requested, walking over to Gate's location. "It's good to see you again after all these years, Alexia. I wouldn't have expected you to be living amongst the company of human beings after you retired from the ranks here. Tell me, what's it like to live amongst them?"

"It's quite nice living there on Doppler Island with them," Gate replied, continuing to type. "They are a joy to observe and learn from. The two sleeping in your lab right now are quite a pair. I bet the girl would teach Douglas a thing or two about Reploid maintenance."

"Hey, Doc," roll began, pulling her frock over her head and resting it on the table next to her. "You never told us the reason why you quit being a Maverick Hunter. Or is it too personal to speak of."

Gate stopped typing and got up as Roll let her boots slip off her feet and fall to the floor beneath her hanging feet. She motioned for Roll to lie down while she pulled down a pair of black wires from above the head of the bed, raising Roll's head then sticking them into a pair of holes at the base of her neck. Roll winced at a slight pain then allowed her head to fall back onto the cushion, looking up at Gate's face.

"The reason why retired from being a Maverick Hunter, you ask?" Gate asked, walking back over to the computer. "To tell you the absolute truth, Roll, I got tired of it all. I used to be in a world where one would make a friend one minute then have to turn around and terminate their existence because of a "bug in the system". It grew tiresome, so I decided to use my hands in another way. Not as tools of destruction, but as hands of healing. Hence my current project to create an anti-virus for the Maverick Virus," Gate explained, taking a seat. "I will begin the test now, Roll. Please, free the locking mechanism on your central systems for me so we can get started."

"Alright." Roll allowed Gate access as Medi walked over to her, looking over her body with her yellow eyes. "Um, Medi was it? Can I ask you something?"

"Yes—I'm listening," Medi replied, leaning over Roll somewhat with her hands on the edge of the bed.

"You called me "newborn" earlier. What did you mean by that?" Roll inquired.

"We consider robotic creations that have been operational for less than two weeks to be newborns. Much like human babies, except the period of time for them is much shorter. Now please relax whilst I examine your body." Medi rested her hand on Roll's forehead, tracing the contours of her face all the way around to the side, around her ears then down to her neck and shoulders. _Skeletal structure is sturdily built, but the alloy that lines it is… unfamiliar to me. _Her hand was lifted and rested on Roll's chest, feeling the vibrations caused by her beating heart. _Internal anatomy is strangely designed… I have never encountered a robot built like this…_ She lifted her hand up and rested it on Roll's stomach; Roll wriggled slightly at the feeling of Medi's cold touch on her warm skin. _She's warm… Her skin is actual living tissue governed by self-sustaining nanomachines. Interesting._ Her eyes suddenly opened widely and Roll began to wear a concerned expression on her face. _What…? What… is this?_

"Is something wrong, Medi?" Knall asked from her position against the room's eastern walls.

Medi looked up at the German hornet and shook her head slowly.

"No. Nothing is wrong, Captain Hornisse," Medi replied. "I was just fascinated by Roll's design. I must say, her body bears a makeup that I have never seen before. Though strange, it is extremely well-built…" Medi's hand accidentally slid over Roll's right breast as she pulled it back; Roll immediately let out a slightly high-pitched gasp and pushed the doctor's hand away. Medi looked down at Roll and at her slightly flushed face as Roll looked away from her. "…And sensitive… just like a human's."

Roll's eyes narrowed as she looked away from Medi.

"…I know you're a doctor and all, but I would appreciate it if you don't touch me there… ever again…" Roll said, covering her chest with both hands.

"I apologize—that was careless of me," Medi apologized. "However I must ask you something. Do you ever have the urge to touch yourself?"

A bright red glow appeared on Roll's face as she shook her head frantically from left to right.

"N-No… I don't…" Roll replied, looking away.

"Oh? You don't?" Knall asked. "I don't know about that, Roll. Judging by the emotional patterns in your voice, it sounded like you liked being touched there."

Roll's expression changed to being annoyed and the glow on her face disappeared.

"I did not like it, dammit!" Roll swiftly said, shaking a fist in the hornet's direction. "Nor do I have the urge to "touch myself" either!"

"Indeed." Medi patted Roll's shoulder and then turned around. "You will be fine the way you are now. Keep being that way and you should live long and prosper."

Roll pouted, looking over at the chuckling Doctor Gate.

"Hey, Doc, are you done yet?" Roll inquired, still quite annoyed.

"Just about… There, finished," Gate replied. "Well, Roll, from what I can tell the program's encryption is still cycling down to nothing. The only real difference is that the rate of cycling is now moving along at a steady rate. If it continues at its current rate, it will finally cycle itself down to nothing in… twenty-six hours."

"And then what?" Roll asked, pulling her frock back over her head.

"Then the program will execute on its own and then begin to run in full effect, or something along those lines," Gate replied. "To tell you the truth, I do not know what effects this program will have on your systems, Roll. It might not even have any effect at all, you never know."

Something caught Knall's attention and she looked upwards with her arms folded, her pair of black antennae twitching.

"Roll, mein Freund, it's time." Knall said, pushing her body off the wall with her right foot. "They will see you now. Hurry up and get dressed."

"All right, all right," Roll said, zipping her boots up and yanking the pair of wires from her neck. "Geez, must you rush me?"

Roll grabbed her bag off the ground near the table and tossed it over her shoulder, following the German out of the room. She turned around and waved goodbye to the two doctors in the room before Knall took her arm and led her down the long corridor. The door closed shortly afterwards and Medi turned around to see Gate sitting with her legs crossed and her arms resting on the floating chair's armrests.

"You saw it too, didn't you? I didn't fully realize what it was until I did an in-depth analysis of her body," Gate asked. "I know that you—the one with the second sight—saw it all too clearly."

Medi tapped the side of her helmet and her visor slid back over her eyes. She turned around and faced the door that the two had just exited through.

"I saw it… I wish I hadn't seen it, but I have." Medi looked back at Gate over her shoulder. "That girl… she will either advance or destroy the entire Reploid world as we know it… I seriously hope you know what you're doing, Alexia."

"Me too, my friend… Me too…"

**F**loors seemed to whiz by as Roll stood in the elevator with the hornet. Knall rested against the wall again with her red eyes closed and her arms folded. Roll looked at the design of her face and cocked a brow.

"Hey, Knall, can I ask something?"

"Sure, go ahead," Knall replied, yawning widely.

Roll pointed at the tall Reploid's face.

"Your eyes—which of them do you see through, exactly?"

"Well… all six hundred and two of them. I'm modeled after an insect, so it's basically second nature," Knall replied.

"Oh… Kay… And another thing: What kind of people are these "Elder Brains" that I'm going to be seeing?"

Knall yawned again, pushing her body lazily off the wall.

"They're fairly easy-going and fun-loving people, those two, but there is one thing you must know before we get to them." Knall held up her left hand and began counting with her fingers, folding them one by one as she went along. "Be yourself completely around them. They like people that don't try to be over polite around them because of who they are." The elevator slowed down somewhat and then came to a complete pause, its doors opening to reveal a long, white corridor with a single door at the end of it. Knall motioned for Roll to step outside; Roll obeyed the gesture and walked out into the corridor, looking around. "Just go through that door there."

"You're not coming?" Roll asked, steadying the bag on her shoulder.

"Nein. Unfortunately, this old queen is tuckered out and must return to her swarm to rest her steely hide," Knall replied. "You'll be fine without me. It's you they're waiting for, anyway." The doors were about to close when Knall impeded their paths with her hands, peeking her head out through the doorway. "Oh, don't bother mentioning to them that I could not come today—they already know."

With the elevator doors closing behind her and Knall returning to the ground level, Roll was alone. There was only one direction to head in so she started off down the corridor, looking up at the lights that adorned the walls. She reached the door at the end and it opened to a room similar in design to the transport room she had arrived in. There were no operators this time—just Roll, the room and the glowing circle in the center of it. She walked into it and reality appeared to warp and bend around her, giving her a strange sense of displacement. Soon, the world seemed to warp itself out of existence completely, leaving her standing in complete darkness. The room was completely silent and she looked around, seeing nothing but blackness. A female voice echoed through the darkness, seemingly coming from all around.

"It has been quite a while since someone has come to play with us," the voice said followed by a happy giggle. "Don't you agree, brother?"

A male voice followed afterwards.

"Ah, how right you are, dear sister of mine. And this one is not the kind that one would encounter every day." A white ball of light appeared on front of Roll, floating up and down in front of her. "Roll, fair newborn, the light you see before you is the gateway to our home. Come on in, before the tea gets cold."

With a cocked brow she walked towards the light, covering her eyes as the room became flooded with bright, white light. She reopened them a few seconds later to find herself standing in the middle of what appeared to be a well-furnished bedroom. A large bed lay in front of her—well made up—with the sheet's color split into two—pink on one side and blue on the other. A large stuffed bear sat on the pink side with a smaller bear sitting in its arms. A wall-mounted mirror was to her left, drawing her attention before the female voice rang through the walls, clear as a bell.

"Hey there! Welcome to our bedroom. Nice, huh?" the voice asked. "Please remove your footwear and exit through the door behind you. I just came from vacuuming in there and I don't feel like doing it again. Finding us in this mansion is relatively easy. Just follow your nose."

Roll did as instructed, removing her boots and feeling the soft carpeting beneath her stocking-clad feet. She walked up to the door behind her, twisted the knob counter-clockwise and stepped out into a hallway with walls adorned with paintings. Roll looked at every one of them as she traversed the length of the hallway, committing every one of them she saw to memory. The corridor ended with a set of spiral stairs and a balcony overlooking the floor below. Statues of angels met her at the bottom of the stairs, each of them in a different pose and exquisitely designed and sculpted from marble stone with fine detail down to the last contour. A scent caught her nose and she sniffed the air, smelling the distinct scent of pork circulating throughout the house. The only way she could go was through a large pair of doors in front of her, so she took a deep breath and headed through them with her shoes in her hand. Pushing the left door open, Roll found herself walking into another well-furnished room. It was the living room this time, and it was dark, save a few lit candles scattered around in the room. She heard the sound of someone drinking on the far side of the room and her eyes immediately shifted in the direction of the sound's source. The faint light from a nearby candle gave her enough light to make out a cup being returned to the center of a white plate, hot steam rising from its inside.

"Ah, how ultimately refreshing," she heard a young, male voice say in the darkness. She heard the sound of a chair being pushed back slightly and someone standing up, walking over to her position slowly through the dark. From the sound of the footsteps, the one making them did not sound too large a person. "It's been a very long while since someone other than Mother came to visit us."

A male figure stepped out of the dark and into the light of the candles with his hands at his sides. His attire consisted of a long, black coat with white buttons running up the center and ending just below the collar. The sleeves were long, and had a white cuff and the end. The length of the coat was perfect for concealing his pants, leaving only the front of his pair of leather-like shoes with golden soles visible. His skin was light from a lack of any real sunlight-given, vitamin D input and his long and perfectly combed, silver-gray hair draped over his shoulders and down his back. There was a soft and welcoming look in pair of hazel-colored eyes as they met Roll's in the dark living room. He seemed normal enough at first glance, but the large, azure blue gemstone that seemed to be imbedded in the center of his forehead and eyes showed pretty much that he was far from normal in any way. He was shorter than she was and appeared to be far younger. He walked up to her, looking up at her face while loosening the white tie around his neck.

"Welcome, Roll," he greeted, extending his hand in welcome. "I am called Hansel. It's good to finally meet you face to face."

She rested her boots on the ground, accepting the child's handshake. His grip was firm and strong, something that he looked not.

"Oh… uh… Thanks, I guess." Roll looked down at his face, staring. "I thought there were supposed to be two of you."

"Ah, there are two of us living in the mansion," Hansel replied, walking over to where he was sitting before she entered. "Come, sit with me. My little sister will join us shortly. You can put your shoes back on, if you wish."

"Nah, I think I'll leave them off. The carpeting feels nice underneath my feet," Roll replied. She took a seat across from him on a couch. "This place is really something."

"Why, thank you." Hansel poured himself another full cup of tea and also filled another cup, taking a deep breath to capture the sweet smell of peppermint filtering out of his cup and into the air. "Go ahead, have some."

Roll shook her head.

"Um, no, that's okay," she said. "I'm fine."

"Go ahead," Hansel said, taking another mouthful. "You and I both know that your design, unlike others, does not restrict you from some of this world pleasures. So please, have some tea. I insist on it."

Reluctant at first, she eyed the cup before her on the table then looked up at the boy's satisfied facial expression. She picked the cup up, ignoring the heat and brought it up to her nose, taking a quick whiff of the hot contents. Hansel pushed his cup out to her in a "go for it" kind of way with a smile on his face, taking another swig from the cup in his hands. A sigh escaped the robot's lips and she brought the edge of the cup up to her lips, taking a quick sip. Her eyes opened wider as the sweet taste of peppermint rolled across every contour of her tongue. She continued to drink, ending up virtually chugging the cup dry of its contents. When she was done she held the empty cup out to him, licking her lips.

"Delicious! Another one, please!" she said.

Hansel was almost in shock, blinking repeatedly with wide eyes.

"Well, well… That's the first time I've ever seen someone rape a cup of tea like that."

Roll turned around to see a girl standing behind Hansel's chair, looking around the left side with a cocked brow. She looked a lot like him, with the same color hair, though hers was a lot shorter than his. In the center of her forehead was a strange, large gem like Hansel's—green in color—and shaped into a six-pointed star. Her eyes were the same hazel color as his and her skin was light, just like his. Her attire consisted of a short, white dress with thin spaghetti straps, decorated with small images of sunflowers. She chose to be shoeless like Roll and had an apron in her hands, folding it into a small neat package.

"Hi there, Roll. Nice to meet'cha!" the little girl greeted. "The name's Gretel."

"Nice to meet you, too," Roll said, her eyes shifting from left to right. "You two are identical twins, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yes, we are," Gretel replied, turning to her brother. "Brother, dinner's ready."

"Ah, good, good." He turned and faced Roll. "Roll, if you don't mind, I would like you to help me set the table. We will have our chat during dinner."

**R**oll sat across from the twins at their large, mahogany dining room table, partaking of a dinner meal consisting of roasted pork. It was the first time Roll had actually eaten anything, and from the look on her face, she was completely taken in. Gretel laughed at the sight of Roll tearing the meat from the bones with almost animalistic aggression, quickly chewing it up and swallowing it down. Having already anticipated this, the twins made sure that she was served at least six times what they were eating combined just to witness the spectacle that would follow afterwards. The twins were only halfway when Roll completely tore apart all nine plates before her, leaving nothing but empty dishes whilst she finished off the last of her large cup of juice with one large gulp. She wiped her lips of with a nearby napkin and her savagery seemed to melt away into nothing, leaving behind a smiling and clearly contended Roll. She patted her stomach with both her hands, letting out a quick burp which she quickly apologized for. Gretel wiped some ketchup off the side of her brother's mouth and threw a giggle the robot's way, stabbing a piece of meat and sticking it into her mouth, chewing it with the teeth on the left side of her jaws. Hansel's eyes were closed for practically the entire meal.

_Such energy…_ he thought, smiling to himself.

"I can see by the look in your eyes that you are both infatuated and confused by the large gemstones in our heads, Roll," Gretel said after swallowing.

"Well, yeah… They are quite strange…" Roll replied. "Sorry if that offends you in any way."

"No offence taken. Actually, I appreciate your honesty," Gretel replied, impaling herself another freshly cut piece of meat.

Hansel opened his eyes after swallowing, looking across at Roll while waving his fork in the air from left to right.

"Now, Roll, on to the matter at hand. You probably have thousands of questions to throw at us both. Please, don't hold back on our account," Hansel said.

"Okay… How is it that you know so much about me?" Roll asked.

"I will take this one," Gretel replied. "Roll, as you've already gathered, my brother and I are not your average pair of twin children. In our… uniqueness we are blessed with a certain… omniscience. To make a long story short, even as we speak we both can see a great deal of what is going on right now in the world. Our abilities are not perfect, however and cannot work well if we are separated from each other by great distances. I have the ability to see what happens in the northern hemisphere of the world and Hansel here oversees the southern hemisphere. There are some things that are beyond our ability to see, though. We believe that those are the things we are simply not meant to see. And believe me, there are some things we wish we didn't and couldn't see, if you know what I mean."

Roll cocked a brow.

"I… have some idea, but how is it that you can see the things you see?" Roll inquired.

"It is something that we were born with, this gift of Farsight," Hansel replied. "We don't exactly understand how nor why we were born with such an ability—but that is at this point irrelevant to us both as we've both accepted it." He wiped a bit of sauce from the right corner of his mouth and continued. "Our Farsight is not perfect, though, as we can only focus on a few things at once before our third eye moves on. Your birth into the world caught both our interests. So much that my sister abandoned her oversight of the northern hemisphere just to observe your daily routine."

_I don't know whether to be honored or disgusted to the core…_ Roll thought, hugging her upper body tightly and looking to the side.

Gretel giggled.

"I know what you're thinking, Roll, but my brother and I are not perverts of any kind. We closed our eyes every time you removed your clothes," Gretel replied, finishing her dinner and wiping her mouth off. "Normally, we wouldn't focus on any one person, but you are something that no one has ever seen before now. Perhaps as unique as we seem to you."

"Well, you two are more than a tad weird with your being able to see the world and all, but I'm growing attached to you two just the same," Roll said, scratching the top of her head.

Hansel rested both his elbows on the table and leaned forward, clasping his hands together.

"And now we get to the meat of the matter." He tapped hands together. "You've come to us by recommendation from our good friend, Alexia Gate. You are here for information about your twin brother—the Hunter, X—am I correct?"

Roll was surprised.

"My… twin brother? X… is my twin?" Roll asked.

Gretel nodded.

"You may not have noticed it, but in appearance and in some of your internal design, you are exactly like him," Gretel explained. "Your personalities vary completely, which is a definite plus, I must say. It would really be boring if you two thought and acted the same way." Hansel stood up and began to walk around the table with her hands behind her back and her eyes to the roof above. "He was a great person, your brother. He saved many in their time of grave need…" She stopped, looking at a painting of a pair of angels on the wall to her right. "Including us."

"He saved you? From what?" Roll asked.

Hansel folded his arms and closed his eyes.

"It was many years ago when we first met your brother," he explained. "X… He saved us when we were about to be killed by a Maverick attack in a city that once was. He knew that we were not what we appeared to be from the moment he laid his eyes on us and took us away from the city… away from the violence. When he returned to base, he brought us back with him., telling us that this would be the safest place for us." He tapped the side of his glass with his left forefinger. "We've been here ever since, helping the Hunters thin the Maverick herds by informing them of potential threats before they get out of hand. His disappearance… I grieves us both."

"Can't you just scan the world with that ability of yours and find him?" Roll asked.

Gretel held her head low, shaking it.

"No… We cannot. We've tried countless times to find him using it, but to no avail. X's location is something we are simply not allowed to see." Gretel turned around. "Even if he was destroyed we could see where his pieces landed, so we don't know if he is still operational or not. The same thing goes for a certain person they told us to watch out for a while back. Her name was Deene, I believe. I don't know what she has done, but the Hunters consider her an S-Rank threat—a rank given only to the Maverick leader, Sigma. It is strange, though… The only time we can ever ascertain the location of said person is when she comes into contact with you… After that she just disappears from our sight completely as if she'd never been there at all. Do you have any idea why she would be so interested in you, Roll?"

Roll sighed.

"It seems that everyone that finds out what I am is immediately interested in me," Roll smiled at her distorted reflection in the surface of one of the glasses on the table. "I'm, like, the latest thing. As for Deene—I don't know anything about her other than she has a knack for appearing out of nowhere and she freaks the hell out of me."

"Then you know as much as we do… Hmmm, not again," Gretel said, looking upwards.

"What do you see, dear sister of mine?" Hansel inquired.

"Humans… They're fighting again in the Sector 9 citadel. Looks more like a territorial gang war turned riot," Gretel responded. She sighed afterwards. "Humans always seem to fight more wars than the Reploids do—no matter how small a scale."

Hansel snapped his fingers, catching Roll's attention.

"Roll, the human citadel in Sector 9 is situated not too far from the last known position of your twin brother. Perhaps if you go there, you can dig up some information on your brother than we could not give you. With the way you are built, it should be easy for you to blend in with the crowds there and mingle," Hansel suggested.

"Hmmm…" Roll sat back in the chair, thinking.

"We can have the Hunters transport you there should you decide on going. Just know that if you decide to go to the human citadel, talk of what you are or Reploids on the whole should not be used unless the situation specifically calls for it. You know by now how the world now feels about the Reploid world thanks to the Mavericks."

Roll looked up.

"I'll go…" she said.

"Are you sure about this?" Hansel asked.

"Yes. I have to go if I want to find out more about the whereabouts of my brother, right? Plus, I also want to see the 'other side' of the human race. The side that exists outside of Doppler Island," Roll replied. "But before I do that, I will help with the washing up. I've made quite a big mess here…"

"Very well. You can rest here for the night after you help out in the kitchen," Hansel generously said, getting out of his chair. "The preparations should be completed before you awaken in the morning. Have a good night."


End file.
